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ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 



UNITED STATES 



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Copyright, 

1878, 

By G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



TO 

JOHN J. LINSON, Esq., of Kingston, N. Y. 

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY HIS FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



This work was originally prepared to be issued in 
three parts. It must speak for itself. If we have 
succeeded in presenting the problems it suggests, and 
the considerations it urges, in a clear manner, we 
will find in that merit a sufficient satisfaction for any 
deficiencies it may contain. 

THE AUTHOR. 

Kingston, N.Y. 
January, 1878. 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK I. 



POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY II 

THE NATURE OF PARAMOUNT ISSUES 19 

LOCAL ISSUES $2 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM . . . . . . 47 

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY . . . . • 5 2 

BOOK II. 

POLITICAL MACHINERY 6 1 

THE INFLUENCES SURROUNDING CONVENTIONS . . 68 

THE PRIMARY AND ITS ABUSES . . . . 75 
THE POLITICAL RINGS OF NEW YORK . . .85 

THE METHODS OF RINGS 9 1 

THE DESTRUCTION OF POLITICAL INTEGRITY . . 97 

ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY 106 

A RETROSPECT 114 



8 CONTENTS. 

BOOK III. 

SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY OF ELECTION. 

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION . . . 125 

THE PLANS CONSIDERED 133 

THE TRUE REMEDY ....;. 141 

POPULAR REPRESENTATION 159 

LOCAL ELECTIONS 167 

THE CONFORMITY OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM WITH 

DEMOCRATIC PRINCIELES 170 

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 1 75 



ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 



UNITED STATES. 



BOOK I. 

POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY. 

The attempt to establish a system of free govern- 
ment on the western continent may now be examined 
in the light of the experience of a century. The 
union of the thirteen States was dictated, not alone by 
a sense of insecurity to the blandishments of foreign 
intrigue, but by a remembrance of the heroic struggle 
in which all had united to secure the blessings of 
political independence and individual freedom. Con- 
federated during the war by devices less consistent 
with national energy than the sovereignty of the 
States, the desirability of union was conceded by all. 

Four thousand years had elapsed before a free 
government was thought possible in a widely extended 



12 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

territory. To the statesmen who framed our Constitu- 
tion belongs the honor of first attempting the experi- 
ment by the extended application of the principle of 
representation. They erected a government suited to 
a wide territory, to an increasing population, and 
adapted to the varying needs of the material interests 
of citizens. The very vagueness of the Constitution, 
in which the powers conferred are described in general 
language, contributed to these ends. 

I. In tracing the history of the Republic, the 
student must be satisfied that States' Rights were 
viewed in the Federal convention from a standpoint 
very different from that in which the subject is now 
examined. The circumstances under which the union 
was formed and the debates of the convention will 
also present convincing evidence of a wide variance 
between the expectations of the founders of the gov- 
ernment and the developments of experience. They 
cannot be scanned without discovering a jealous regard 
for the sovereignty of the States, as the controlling 
spirit of its councils. Every incident bearing upon 
the subject would seem to point to the assumption 
that, in the new confederation, the states, possessing 
the highest sovereignty, would exercise authority more 
important to their fellow-citizens than that conferred 
upon the nation. Its members had before them facts 
then existing. Before the union each State was a 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 3 

separate and independent government, and to the 
majority, of its citizens was accorded the exercise of 
power. Within each were existing factions or parties 
around which grouped the political classes into which 
the masses will ever divide ; and no fact would lead 
them to suppose that the new Constitution would 
change the centre of political thought or alter the 
allegiance of the citizen. Under the Articles of Confed- 
eration, the will of the people was concentrated within 
the limits of each State, and uttered by the indepen- 
dent agency of State authority in the councils of the 
nation in which each commonwealth was entitled to 
an equal vote. The existence of great national parties 
seems not to have been expected. 

Confirmation of this view is afforded by the Con- 
stitution itself. The careful regard to State represen- 
tation in the Senate and House of Representatives ; 
the structure of the Electoral College and the provision 
that the electors should meet within their respective 
States, point to the assumption. The jealousies of the 
States are evidenced on every page of the records. 
The small States feared the great ones, and the body 
was on the point of dissolution while discussing their 
equal representation in the legislative branch of the 
proposed union. 

The existence of slavery was a characteristic which 
distinguished the Southern commonwealths from their 



14 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

Northern brethren. It was the one great interest 
not common to every portion of the union ; and had 
the transfer of popular allegiance, following the exercise 
of the sovereign authority, from the States to the 
nation, been anticipated, the erection of the national 
government would never have been consented to by the 
South. It brought within the control of its enemies 
the institution of slavery. A brief period only elapsed, 
before wise statesmen saw with dismay that the new 
government which included within its domain the 
staid Puritan and the sensitive Southerner, sooner or 
later, would be disturbed by a violent conflict. 

Thus was left unsettled the vital question of political 
sovereignty, and a union of doubtful sovereignty was 
acquiesced in, as the only one which would meet with 
acceptance in every section. 

Once formed the union exhibited a characteristic 
which seems never to have been alluded to in the 
convention. The nature of the powers conferred upon 
the general government, which though few in number, 
were of a most important character, led to the concen- 
tration of public attention to the nation at large. 
The distinctive interests of classes of people began to 
appear, and saw in the government of • the union an 
enemy or a benefactor. States' Rights became then 
a principle of a class of believers, not a thing to be 
asserted as a reserved power by a single community. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 5 

The thousand industries which had formerly looked 
to the respective States, as the possessors of sovereign 
power, for assistance or protection, now fastened their 
eyes on the union clothed .with the authority of regu- 
lating commerce, and representing its relations to 
foreign production. The manufacturer saw his in- 
terests affected in every adjustment of the tariff, and 
demanded protection. The producer sought for a free 
commerce. The creditor wanted hard money and the 
debtor a flexible currency. 

These interests, diverse as they are, were common 
to the people of all the States of the union, and rep- 
resented the wants of living flesh and blood. New 
formations resulted. The States, no longer sover- 
eigns, were degraded into units, each of which was 
powerless when arrayed against his neighbors. The 
centre of attention and authority was transferred to 
the halls of Congress, and upon its floors the interests 
of the people, differing in shades, began to combine 
into congenial associations. A majority was necessary 
to control ; one less than a majority, in the legislative 
branch, was as inefficient as a hundred ; and combi- 
nations became a necessity. Two political parties 
were the result of the compromise of these influences, 
and since the foundation of the government to the 
present time, they have divided the sentiments and 
the votes of the people. 



j6 the elective franchise 

Immediately after the adjournment of the conven- 
tion the contest between the advocates of State and 
national sovereignty broke out with violence, and 
the arena of debate was transferred to every portion 
of the union. The incomplete character of the struc- 
ture was exhibited by the wide divergence of views 
expressed on the one hand by those who had sought 
to establish a Constitution suited to the needs of a 
nation, and, on the other, by those who wished to 
avail themselves of the mantle of State sovereignty to 
protect a " peculiar institution." * The violence of 
discussion which had aroused the most threatening 
forebodings in the convention, from the formation of 
the union until the deep passions were aroused to 
open warfare, disturbed the tranquillity of the masses. 
In another view, the framers of the government 
were equally mistaken, and to this day the erroneous 
impression exists in the public mind. It was assumed 
that in the selection of officials the people would de- 
vote their attention chiefly to the personal qualities of 
candidates for their favor and judge aspirants for leg- 
* Mr. Baldwin, of Georgia, a member of the Federal Con- 
vention, stated in the House of Representatives, Febuary 12th, 
1790, that the subject of slavery caused pain and difficulty in 
the Convention, and the members from the South consented to 
union only because of an extreme desire to obtain an efficient 
government. Mr. Smith, of South Carolina, said the States 
never would have consented unless their property had been 
guaranteed to them. Debates of Congress, vol. i. pages 209-210. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 7 

islative or executive offices by those merits which 
elicit popular respect. Honesty and capacity, first of 
all, it was supposed would be sought for. To ensure 
the selection of these qualities as attributes of the 
chief magistrate of the nation, and at the same time 
to make that office independent of legislative power, 
the founders confided his election to an indepen- 
dent body. In the Federalist, contained in a chapter 
written by Alexander Hamilton, we find these words 
with reference to the purpose of the electoral col- 
lege :— 

" The mode of appointment of chief magistrate is 
almost the only part of the system of any consequence, 
which has escaped without severe censure from its oppo- 
nents. It was desirable that the immediate election 
should be made by men most capable of analyzing the 
qualities adapted to the station, and acting under cir- 
cumstances favorable to deliberation and to a judicious 
combination of all the reasons and inducements which 
were proper to govern their choice. A small number 
of persons selected by their fellow-citizens from the 
general mass will be most likely to possess the infor- 
mation and discernment requisite to such complicated 
investigations." 

Such were the expectations of the ablest advocates 
of the Constitution with regard to the electoral sys- 
tem. How different is theory from practice ! Politi- 
cal organizations have usurped its functions, and have 
devolved upon their instrumentalities the " discern- 
ment " and " intelligence " needed for such " compli- 



1 8 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

cated investigations," while the electors have become 
silent automatons to execute their will. 

The agency which contributed in the highest degree 
to change the character of the government was the 
growing influence of the people which accompanied the 
extension of the elective franchise. Under the Con- 
stitution the electors were to be chosen by the state 
legislatures. The college was a body invested, not 
only with the power of election, but that of selection ; 
and so long as the legislatures elected its members, it 
acted with some degree of independence. Gradually, 
however, their power was surrendered, State after 
State making the sacrifice to the growing influence 
of the masses, until in 1824, the electors in a majority 
of the commonwealths of the union were chosen by 
the people.* The people were vested with full capacity 
to make a final choice, but as a selecting agency they 
were impotent. Instrumentalities hitherto unknown 
were the resort to enable them to perform both func- 
tions which were embodied in the electoral college. 
The operation of the system, based upon facts existing 
no longer, on several occasions, has threatened the per- 
petuity of the union, and brought the people to the 
threshold of civil war. The electoral college was di- 
vested of its deliberative character the moment when 

* In Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, South Caro- 
lina and Vermont, the Legislatures chose the electors. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 1 9 

deliberation was rendered unnecessary by the exercise 
of the power of selection by another authority. It 
was finally supplanted by agencies unknown to the 
law. 

II. A brief examination of the principles urged by 
political parties and their tendencies will serve to ex- 
hibit the nature of the responsible functions of govern- 
ment. 

THE NATURE OF PARAMOUNT ISSUES. 

We have alluded to the discovery by citizens living 
in one State, of interests which bound them to the 
inhabitants of every other locality in the union — in- 
terests, national in their character, and mostly relating 
to the commercial transactions in which every adult 
is constantly engaged. The general authority to regu- 
late these affairs is reposed in Congress, the legislative 
branch of government. Laws, " the rules of action 
of citizens," are universal in their operation. All 
other powers are obedient to the body which enacts 
them. The executive, the only other active branch, 
is the servant and agent of Congress to execute its 
decrees. Within the limits of the highest law, the 
Constitution, established by themselves, the people in 
their national relations have reposed in Congress the 
supreme authority of making all laws to protect and 
control all their interests. 



20 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

Out of the exercise of these powers arises the bulk 
of the issues submitted for popular determination. 
The requirement that a majority shall concur to enable 
it to control legislation, forces a coalition of a class 
having common national sentiments into combinations 
with other classes with views least repugnant to their 
own to such an extent as to possess the reasonable 
hope of having that majority. Without that hope, 
combination is feeble and ineffective. All classes out- 
side of such a combination represent the opposite 
force, with which it disputes the authority of govern- 
ment. 

The legislative power touches a thousand questions, 
each of which presents an issue, which is discussed in 
Congress. Ability and discretion are required to ex- 
amine and comprehend their details. If they were 
submitted to the people, a thousand elections would 
be necessary, at each of which the masses would vote 
yea or nay. But our system permits of but one elec- 
tion every two years for members of the legislative 
branch of government, and each year one election in 
a portion of the States. 

Hence, the many questions are grouped together, 
and only the general principles which underlie them 
are presented for popular approbation or disapproval, 
and the political party friendly to the administration 
votes yea, while the one opposed votes nay. Those 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 21 

who do not act with either, throw away their ballots, 
and substantially vote blanks. 

In a general sense, one political party represents the 
Radical or progressive classes of sentiment ; the other, 
the Conservative. One wants statute law; the other 
insists upon the supremacy of natural law, or the un- 
restrained inclinations of citizens. Law being a rule 
of action which every one must follow, it restrains 
that portion of the people whose habits or inclinations 
would lead them to do what it forbids. These classes 
are ordinarily found in the resisting or Conservative 
party — the party opposed to new enactments. A cer- 
tain degree of comprehension is required to under- 
stand the purpose of new laws, and most of those who 
possess it are found in the organization which claims 
to be progressive. Intelligence and riches increase 
wants, and the classes whose wants or desires, which 
can be satisfied by government, are greatest, are found 
in the Radical forces ; and, as the want is satisfied, 
the issue changes. That organization is, therefore, 
constantly presenting new issues and undergoing new 
transformations ; the other, representing the masses 
who have no special interest to gratify, and whose • 
liberty is affected by the touch of the law, remains 
the same, lives always, and contains substantially the 
same elements. In it is found the foreigner, who, 
bringing his customs into a new country, discovers 



22 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

that its laws interfere with their enjoyment. He finds 
the most congenial association with those who advo- 
cate the least law. The Radical believer discovers 
right from the appearance of abstract questions, while 
the thoughtful Conservative examines issues in their 
relations to the circumstances which surround them. 

The grouping together of questions into general 
principles, confines the people to a choice between 
the two classes of -principles most prominent ; and a 
description of them discovers, first, their entire har- 
mony with each other, and their intimate relations to 
the most important interests of mankind — commerce 
and liberty. 

We write only of standard issues. Slavery was a 
special issue, arising from circumstances which exist- 
ed temporarily, and it was the course of nature which 
made the Radical forces the advocates of the law for 
its extermination, and the Conservatives, the resisting 
agents. Commerce always exists, and government 
always requires taxes, which commerce and production 
must pay. The difference in methods of procuring 
taxes and controlling commercial transactions, is, 
therefore, a subject of constant agitation. 

The Conservative party, representing the non-inter- 
ference view of political economy, wants a money 
whose intrinsic value' renders unnecessary legislative 
interference to vitalize it ; it wants a commerce, free 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 23 

from legislative restrictions ; it opposes sumptuary- 
laws ; it demands that the Constitution which confers 
powers upon government shall have a strict construc- 
tion so as to limit the extent of power exercised. The 
effect of these principles is to extend liberty by re- 
straining law. It is on one side of that happy mean 
which makes the law the preserver of liberty, by re- 
stricting and restraining passions to that extent which 
permits of the highest enjoyment of happiness, free 
from tyranny on the one hand and anarchy on the 
other — thereby securing the largest degree of true 
liberty. The extreme of Radicalism, is unlicensed 
liberty ; of Conservatism unlicensed tyranny. Both 
are equally destructive of real liberty. 

The other party represents a special policy, and 
groups together special interests. It claims that the 
greatest degree of prosperity accorded to these in- 
terests, will inure to the greatest advantage of all. 
Mr. Clay initiated the protective policy for the manu- 
facturing interest, and internal improvements for the 
producing class. The National Bank, which aimed 
to cure financial ills by the issue of an artificial cur- 
rency, found its strongest defenders among the Whigs. 
The Republican party represented the sense of the 
people in the moral question of slavery, and now tends 
to the adoption of Whig principles upon the perma- 
nent issues. 



24 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

There were other questions which, in the early days 
of the Republic, naturally took precedence. They 
related to the liberty of citizens, and to the reposi- 
tories to which that liberty should be confided. The 
Federalists aimed to extend the power and strengthen 
the arm of the general government. The Democratic 
or Conservative party sought to strengthen the States 
as the best bulwarks of popular liberty. As it wished 
to preserve the greatest degree of liberty to the peo- 
ple, so it sought to repose many important powers 
which were necessary to government, in those agen- 
cies which were nearest to the people. 

These, then, are the general policies and principles 
which are presented for the public decision. The at- 
tention of the citizen cannot be fastened upon any 
less important issues, and there are none more impor- 
tant. No special State interest can be considered by 
a national party ; and a division of sentiment within 
a State upon its local questions, would impair the 
strength and integrity of the national organization. 
A party that attempted to father the special interests 
of a State, would soon destroy itself. To enable it to 
cope for national power, the national organization 
deals exclusively with national questions, and State 
organizations are only parts of the structure by which 
it is sustained. 

State, and even municipal elections, in the main, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 25 

do not exhibit the strength of certain local or State 
policies or interests, but the views of citizens upon 
national questions. Although the policies to be follow- 
ed by the mayor are different from those of the gov- 
ernor, and those of president differ from those of 
either, at the same election, no appreciable difference . 
appears in the number of votes which the candidate 
for each of these offices receives, when sustained by 
the same party organization.* Either the local or 
national issues are subordinated. The votes for all 
being the same the controlling attention is attracted 
by the one class of questions referred to. State 
Conventions seldom waste paper to record an opinion 
on State policy ; and when an election is held in any 
State, the people throughout the union look to it as 
an indication of public opinion upon some recent 
legislation discussed in the halls of Congress. Even 
the results of local elections are examined with refer- 
ence to their bearing in this direction. 

We reach the conclusion, then, that the people sub- 
ordinate every other question to those of a national 
character, and, so far as their ballots are concerned, 
they only decide upon the general principles under- 
lying purely party policies. 

* In New York State, where the vote for Hayes for Pres- 
ident was 489,207, and Morgan, for Governor, 489,371, the differ- 
ence (if any) in the issues involved seems to have been under- 
stood by very few voters. 



26 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

The questions are presented in the vague resolu- 
tions of National or State party Conventions ; but 
under the declarations may be discovered the distinc- 
tive tendencies which we have discussed. How, then, 
do the people decide upon the issues submitted ? 

Not from a thorough comprehension of the details 
of the policies, either undertaken or promised, nor 
even a reasonable comprehension of the principles an- 
nounced. The laws or principles are so varied in their 
character, and extensive in their operation, that they 
puzzle the deepest and most philosophical student of 
political economy. The citizen, therefore, if inde- 
pendent in his judgment, will decide from the appa- 
rent effects of policies ; if sturdy in his political faith, 
he is valuable as an automaton to jump at the beck of 
his party leaders, and useless for anything else in the 
political drama. He gets his politics from his party 
as the Russian gets his religion from the Czar, or the* 
Brahma from his priest. Yet there are ten of this 
kind to one of the other ; and Tweeds rise and fall, 
heaping curses on their heads in the shape of debts. 
Powerless or disinclined to do otherwise, the party 
man votes from habit, without variation, to sustain 
his party. The changes in the margins between 
the strength of a political organization from one elec- 
tion to another, frequently represent the number of 
those who, under the stress of hard times, attributing 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 2J 

their misfortunes to the policy of government, burst 
asunder their party trammels and demand a reform. 

These changes represent, in the period intervening 
between one presidential election and another, scarce- 
ly enough to make a balance of power in the most 
closely contested states. During the half century 
between 1824 and 1870, out of 185 elections held in 
States, at which they voted for president, only 15 
times have been witnessed a variation from their na- 
tural party predilections. These changes were con- 
fined in each instance to States where majorities were 
insignificant. The elections in the Northern States 
during and since the war exhibit with even more dis- 
tinctness the certainty of partisan success in every 
State where majorities exceed three per cent of the 
total vote. Notwithstanding the changes in the is- 
sues presented, the Democratic party have been 
successful, at presidential elections, through a period 
of nearly twenty years, only in the States of New 
York, New Jersey, Indiana and Connecticut — in each 
of which the majority for either party has seldom ex- 
ceeded the margin mentioned. 

The sole privilege exercised by the citizen in his 
direct relation as a factor influencing the action of his 
government is that performed in exercising the fran- 
chise. The only instrument which makes him an ac- 
tive agent in the government is the ballot, and the 



28 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

exact limit of his expression by its use, the purposes 
to which it can be devoted, and the circumstances 
which control or restrain its power, are subjects de- 
manding the most careful attention. 

Forced by the limited opportunity which our pres- 
ent system of elections affords to bestow his atten- 
tion upon national issues alone, the conclusion is 
irresistible that whatever effective expression is en- 
sured to the citizen upon questions relating to State 
and local policies, must be had through the only other 
agency through which his voice is exerted, the ma- 
chinery of political organizations wherein he speaks 
as a member of the leading party. The organiza- 
tion which controls a State, a city, a county or even a 
town, where certainty of success is ensured by the 
large political preponderance in its favor, not only 
nominates but elects. In States it chooses governors 
and legislators, and in smaller localities, all officials 
vested with the functions imposed by law upon them- 

From these considerations it is apparent that an 
individual receives his political character only from his 
association with a force co-extensive with the borders 
of the nation, and that parties are responsible only so 
far as they speak with reference to subjects of uni- 
versal interest. Yet it may be safely declared that 
not one-twentieth of the legislation of Congress is of 
this nature. The bulk of enactments relate to 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 29 

private or local interests. Unity of action is had 
only when those opinions conforming to the natural 
and universal tendencies of the constituency which 
a party represents are to be advanced, and cannot 
properly be demanded upon questions in which 
those principles, interests, or tendencies are not in- 
volved. Though division may result in defeat, local- 
ities, whose temporary advantage may be subserved 
by a brief departure from permanent principles, will 
not be slow to rebel. 

III. Having, then, examined those issues in refer- 
ence to which parties may appropriately represent 
the convictions of voters, and as to which officials per- 
form responsible functions, it remains to touch upon 
those relations of a subordinate character, substan- 
tially unaffected by the results of elections. In regard 
to these, officials are invested with despotic, or per- 
haps more properly, with a discretionary authority, 
and government is practically irresponsible. The ex- 
ercise of power is unrestrained by the influence of 
the popular will expressed at the ballot box. To as- 
certain the distinction more clearly, we will summarize 
the conditions upon which responsibility depends : — 

The essential of responsibility is that the power to 
appoint and remove shall be in the people. Upon the 
ready adaptability of the appointing agency to apply 
itself to the particular duties of the official whose acts 



30 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

are to be investigated, and the readiness with which 
the power of removal is exercised, depends all there 
is of accountability in government. An executive 
having this authority over his subordinates, capable 
of giving proper attention to the manner in which 
they have performed their duties, possessed of a mind 
which readily applies itself to the legitimate subjects 
of consideration, and acting wholly with reference to 
them, presents a perfect picture of responsibility. Not 
so, however, with the mass of people compelled to 
speak by the lips of a majority. 

Party responsibility demands that a political organ- 
ization shall represent well defined purposes or prin- 
ciples, clearly distinguishable from those advanced by 
the opposite party. Usually, the national platforms, 
however they may recognize the same wants of the 
people, differ as to the means or remedies to be adopt- 
ed to supply them. In this difference will be dis- 
closed the tendencies of the organization, whether 
towards a Conservative or Radical policy ; and the 
platforms of each may be usually interpreted by strip- 
ping from them all glittering generalities alluding to 
the need of public virtue and public justice and as- 
suming that the means proposed to remedy a given 
state of affairs will be followed in the event of suc- 
cess. 

To ensure party responsibility the issues presented 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 3 1 

should be appropriate to the affairs which are to be 
managed by the officials to be chosen. Hence, the 
discussion of national affairs and the relations that 
voters bear to them, are unimportant and ought to 
have no place, under a proper system of elections, in 
a State or local canvass ; but the decision should turn 
upon those questions having intimate connection with 
the concerns immediately involved. Where no diver- 
gence of views exists which distinguish one party from 
another, upon such issues, there can be no responsi- 
bility. That questions of this character are discussed, 
that party lines are drawn upon them, in State and 
local elections, no one will have the temerity to urge ; 
and hence the decision of a State, like the verdict of a 
jury given on immaterial issues, is taken upon ques- 
tions of national policy. 

To afford this responsibility it is necessary that the 
people of a given community or State should be able to 
decide the contest for its power or authority with ref- 
erence to issues legitimately involved. Majorities can- 
not now be transferred on these questions ; the people 
lack the elastic movement which enables the attention 
of all to be attracted to them, excluding all extra- 
neous issues. It is not the gain or loss, but the 
majority investing acceptable hands, with the govern- 
ment which speaks effectually. Where the affairs of 
States follow those of the government and are passed 



32 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

into the control of those whose only known opinions 
or policies have reference to the conduct of national 
authority, responsibility in States is a myth. In Iowa, 
where the strength of Republicans is double that of 
Democrats, or in Kentucky or New York city, where 
the condition of affairs is reversed, such a thing must 
be unknown at elections ; and the voice of the people 
upon local policies is unheard. The body politic, 
speaking as a whole, in such States, ever exerts its 
voice in the same direction. The even balance of 
parties, which is a result of adapting issues to meet 
the wants of the public in such a manner as to afford 
the hope of victory to each of the contesting organiza- 
tions, is lacking, and in closely contested States, elec- 
tions turn upon Congressional policy. Until parties 
are formed with reference to local issues, partisan 
responsibility, will not be realized. 

LOCAL ISSUES. 

There is no rule of management, controlling the 
organization of the village literary society, the direction 
of a bank, or the benevolent associations of any com- 
munity, which, with politics excluded, would not apply 
with equal propriety to those civil organizations created 
by the State known as cities, towns and villages. 
Many benevolent or business corporations are estab- 
lished and controlled by statutes, and all are conducted 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 33 

upon business principles which only require that the 
energies of their members shall be devoted to the 
special end of their organization. Extraneous matters 
are eliminated from consideration. Their manage- 
ment is usually reposed in the hands of officers, whose 
opinions, if given, are considered only in relation to 
the proper conduct of the society over which they 
preside. The usual method of ascertaining the pref- 
erences of members in the election of officers is by 
informal ballot in small clubs, or by a nominating 
committee in larger societies. The committees may 
represent differences prevailing among the members, 
but they are not of a religious or political character ; 
and the introduction of prejudices of the members, 
having no reference to the objects of the organization, 
is, with reason, viewed with displeasure. The nomina- 
ting committee only suggests the candidates, giving 
full consideration to their capacity for the particular 
.stations. It does not attempt to dictate, as the ready 
means of communication possessed by the members 
enables them to frustrate any effort of that character. 
The objects of State government and the nature of 
its powers and duties differ greatly from those of the 
nation and from those of the lesser communities which 
it creates. The principles of legislation partake of the 
same nature, but assume different names. The State 
has no power to coin money, to make war or peace, 
3 



34 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

but that principle which demands the localization of 
power into its hands requires from it further localiza- 
tion by extending the jurisdiction of cities, counties 
and towns. The Democratic principle would require 
general laws rather than special enactments; and 
though far-reaching in their effects, the party profess- 
ing the fundamental doctrine from which they spring, 
has never yet assumed their special guardianship, nor 
has it, as a party, censured the widest departure from 
them by its adherents or opponents. The rule which 
requires the strict construction of laws, is seldom put 
in operation, and it is quite as apt to be applied in 
special cases by one party as the other. The spoils 
only are involved, and their capture will warrant the 
relinquishment of principle at any time. 

The ingenuit^»of statesmen during the past century 
has been applied to discover some means by which 
public attention could be attracted to these important 
concerns. The localization of power tends to permit 
of some combination in small localities, which, at 
times, overcomes partisanship ; but it avails little in 
communities containing more than a thousand voters. 
Elections are held in some of the States, at which, in 
theory, only State officers are elected, but, in practice, 
only national affairs are discussed. Spring elections 
are held in a portion of the States for the election of 
town officers, but the nominations are dictated by the 
two political parties. The recent municipal commis- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 35 

sion suggests the limitation of suffrage to tax-payers, 
but these practically possess only the qualification of 
tax-gatherers who collect their taxes from the rent- 
payers. These devices never have availed to, and 
never can, secure the aim sought. The masses, of 
each party will seek to obtain a result which may be 
heralded over the country as a victory for their partisan 
views. No degree of intelligence will suffice to estrange 
the voter from giving attention to those attractive 
subjects which concern the happiness of millions, and 
relate to his own welfare as a component part of the 
world of commerce ; which involve war and peace, and, 
to a larger degree than any other, ensure the march 
of intellectual and moral progress of the people. These 
results are only to be accomplished through political 
parties, acting as national organizations ; and at no 
place where can be shown fidelity to the principles he 
assumes as his own, will the citizen fail to proclaim 
them. However distant and indefinite may be the 
bearing of his act, so long as it indirectly affects the 
supremacy of his views as a member of his party, he 
will not fail to bestow it to assist in the solution of 
the leading questions. 

It would unquestionably be an absurdity to elect 
directors of banks, officers of literary societies, officials 
of railroad corporations by the votes of their partisan 
associates ; but it is no less an absurdity to elect 



36 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

partisan mayors of cities or even governors of States, 
when the principles which distinguish their political 
character are never discussed in their relation to the 
affairs over which they rule. The explanation of the 
weakness of temperance parties is found in the fact 
that they attempt to force upon the national sentiment 
a class of legislation imposed by the law upon the 
States, whose functions are remitted to obscurity by 
the engrossing character of national concerns. The 
Grangers of the West, the strongest independent 
organization ever witnessed in the country, failed for 
the same reason. Complaining of local abuses, it could 
not establish its identity as a national organization ; 
and the moment the indignation which called it into 
being had passed away, it was obscured by the en- 
veloping wings of the standard parties which represent 
the community of feeling that follows the movements 
of the national government. In these questions, not 
one, but all classes have a constant interest. A foreign 
policy threatens war; a poor currency may bring 
disaster ; a legislative enactment invades the liberty 
of opinion and involves the public safety. These are 
questions which, aroused constantly by the friction of 
government machinery, demand the attention of its 
servants to the subordination of others. 

The weakness of all third parties results from the 
fact that they present questions which are not issues, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 37 

and the people disregard them by voting for the only 
policies which are really involved. The efforts for 
liquor prohibition, presented as an abstract principle, 
would, probably, receive the approval of a majority of 
the people of the country ; but, as such legislation 
comes only under the dominion of States, no national 
organization strong enough to enforce the demand 
can ever secure it a hearing ; and so long as State 
issues are subordinated, the advocates of prohibitory 
law will be few at every election. 

No more effective criterion of the importance of 
various forms of government to the people, can be 
given than that presented in the amount of taxes 
they absorb. Applying the rule of population as the 
measure of relative consumption, New York would 
appear to consume one-tenth of the goods taxed by 
the nation, and this consumption of one-tenth of the 
articles imported pays that proportion of the expenses 
of government. This would amount to about $40,- 
000,000 per year. The sum of State, town and county 
taxes, exclusive of school tax, amounts to $57,000,000 
•per year — $15,000,000, or 26 per cent, for State pur- 
poses ; and more than three times that amount for 
county and town expenses. The amount of national 
taxes paid, including the public debt expense, is a 
trifle more than the amount of local taxation for town 
and county purposes. 



38 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

What, then, are these important interests which re- 
quire this heavy drain of taxation ? Scarcely $3,000,- 
000 out of the $15,000,000 are required for general 
purposes; $5,000,000 are for the bounty debt; $1,- 
000,000 for the new capitol, and the remainder for the 
schools and public expenses. Prior to 1874 nearly 
two millions of dollars were required for ordinary re- 
pairs on the State canals. 

When we investigate the amounts of money ex- 
pended for purposes which are debateable, as com- 
pared with those which are compulsory, it is found 
that the local expenditures far exceed those of the 
national government, within the respective localities. 
Deducting the amount of payments on the national 
debt, interest and pensions, about $130,000,000 would 
remain to be paid for miscellaneous expenditures and 
the support of the army and navy. New York's pro- 
portion would be about one-eleventh or $12,000,000, 
which would be about one-fifth of the total tax paid 
by its citizens. Nor is this hardly just to the national 
government, for it is compelled to increase its force 
to manage the expenditures applied to these extra 
purposes — the pensions, debt and interest — and the 
additional force is paid out of the fund we style mis- 
cellaneous. With the public servants necessary in 
ordinary times the expenditures would be greatly de- 
creased. Instead of being $ 1 30,000,000, in i860 they 
amounted to only $60,000,000. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 39 

Hence the people of New York, in ordinary times, 
would pay for the necessary expenses of the national 
government about $5,000,000, and for State and local 
expenses about $60,000,000 of taxes per year, only 
about $5,000,000 of which is applied to the reduction 
of the war obligations. 

It is clear, therefore, that, by reason of the neces- 
sity which forces into prominence national questions, 
the mass of people bestow their chief attention upon 
the issues involving the expenditure of one-tenth of 
the public expenses, and pass unnoticed the issues 
relating to the expenditure of the other nine-tenths. 

The power possessed by the legislative authority in 
the nation is exceeded by that of the same branch of 
government in the States. In the union, the powers 
of government are defined by a written constitution, 
and the authority, not granted expressly or by im- 
plication, is reserved to the people of the States. In 
the State Constitution, all legislative authority is 
granted which is not restricted. The legislature may 
exercise the most despotic power if no prohibition ex- 
ists to restrain it. No government, within the bor- 
ders of the State can be established without its con- 
sent. It may make and unmake cities ; it may grant 
to individuals special privileges ; to any department 
of local government particular powers ; and it may 
organize and regulate by its will, every business 01 



40 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

social corporation within the State. The extent of 
its powers is practically immeasurable. Every official 
is directly or indirectly its servant. It measures and 
defines the liberties of citizens, the authority of cities, 
and the duties of every public officer. 

All State and local issues, therefore, arise from 
legislative action. A passing notice is taken of a le- 
gislative enactment and then more important issues 
force it into obscurity. When a city receives a new 
charter, its electors look on with some interest during 
the discussion in the legislative chambers, but they 
are powerless to assist or retard the measure except 
by an inadequate expression of their moral sense. If 
authority is extended to bond a town, its inhabitants 
witness with some excitement the progress of a bill 
by which their pretended consents are to be obtained, 
not at a fair election, but by argument, artifice and 
fraud ; but when the act is done, it is forgotten. The 
only consequence they reflect upon is the amount of 
taxation proposed. 

When the machinery put in operation by the law 
is under full headway, new questions completely hide 
it from view ; and it goes on performing its righteous 
or unrighteous functions, unimpeded by a public sen- 
timent that is able to affect it. Occasionally, some 
exposure of corruption identified with a particular 
corporation, demands a reform so far as it is con- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 4 1 

cerned ; but the thousand other organized forces, 
spreading their corrupt influences, are unobserved in 
any quarter. 

These issues, if not decided upon by the people at 
elections, must be remitted to the machinery of politi- 
cal parties. In so far as the voice of the masses com- 
posing such parties is ensured an expression within 
their structure, and no further, will it reach these im- 
portant issues. Where that voice fails to reach, the 
discretion of officials will control ; and the proper ex- 
ercise of that discretion will depend upon the honesty 
and capacity of the governing agents. The discretion 
of the legislature, enlarged by these means, possesses 
a signification which is seldom imagined. Not merely 
the qualities of an automaton are required, but that 
intelligence and honor which is incorruptible in the 
presence of the immense interests affected by the ac- 
tion of States, interests capable of controlling with the 
power of a despot, the government of the nation. 

Nor are the qualities, so desirable in every branch 
of government, susceptible of becoming political issues 
even in the nation. They cannot divide the senti- 
ments of the people. Their desirability is conceded 
by all, and their presence or absence appeals not to 
the belief, but the judgment of the voter. Unlike a 
principle, it affords no distinction between classes of 
belief, and nothing upon which can be predicated a 






42 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

positive asservation. To secure an expression with 
reference to the important interests that have been 
described, interests which touch the daily life of every 
citizen, each voter under compulsion must accept the 
candidate of his party and adopt him as the medium 
of securing representation of his opinions in the 
government. 

Yet allied to these personal characteristics and de- 
pendent upon their existence or absence in officials, 
is the corruption which creeps into and contaminates 
the public service. The corrupt man is devoid of the 
qualities sought for in the machinery of selection. 
Honesty is a quality of the human mind ; it is a 
characteristic of an individual, for whose possession 
he is accountable not to man but to the Divine Agent 
in whose image he was created. The selection of the 
qualities, which distinguish individuals and not parties 
is allotted to those instrumentalities, whose prelimi- 
nary action, places the opposing principles in battle 
array. At elections, they are subjects of doubtful dis- 
putes, and the elevation of honor, if not attained by the 
citizen in his own organization, is only to be secured 
at the sacrifice of interests of greater apparent im- 
portance as to which the same uncertainty does not 
exist. 

IV. Political parties in the nation are equally bal- 
anced. The element of uncertainty must exist in 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 43 

every national canvass, and the doubtful character of 
such campaigns is the nutriment of every local or 
State organization. Take it away and there remains 
no motive for Democrats in Vermont, or Republicans 
in Kentucky to participate in elections for State officers 
in their respective boundaries. As the votes of the 
minority party affect only national results, it is only 
natural that the chief attention is bestowed upon 
national affairs. Issues change constantly, and the 
introduction of new questions tends to restore the 
equality of strength. When the people have decisively 
approved or disapproved of the policy of a political 
organization, it is no longer an issue ; and the princi- 
ples of the defeated organization must be conformed 
to the tendencies exhibited by the election. When the 
people have decided against Radicalism, the party 
representing that view becomes less Radical ; if the 
decision is opposed to Conservatism, the force embody- 
ing that tendency becomes less extreme. Success 
is the aim of each party, and the principles of oppo- 
site organizations differ widely, or approximate, the 
one to the other, just in proportion as they appear to 
meet the approval of the people. 

The lines made by the national forces are drawn 
with geometrical precision through all the States, and 
elections, of whatever kind, array within them unequal 
forces in opposition. The political colors of separate 



44 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

communities or commonwealths, in each disproportion- 
ate, present throughout the country an equal appear- 
ance. As the fluctuations of sentiment in a State 
are slight, however great they appear in the aggregate, 
a decisive majority in its limits is not likely to be dis- 
turbed. The question of partisan prowess, in its re- 
lation to local affairs, is therefore unimportant, and 
the one of interest to citizens is as to what combina- 
tion shall control the machinery of the leading or- 
ganization. 

The machinery of political organizations arose out 
of chaos. The law provides no method of nominating 
public officials, and to fill the stations of government 
it was necessary that some agency should name can- 
didates. In the early days of our history, the Con- 
gressmen, in caucus assembled, presented the can- 
didates for President, and being themselves, to a certain 
degree, responsible to the people, usually followed the 
sentiment of their political supporters. The small 
local officials were selected by mass meetings or con- 
ventions, while the State officials were presented by 
the method which is now nearly uniform. No con- 
vention of political sages adopted any of these systems, 
but they were " the primitive means by which the 
partisan sense of the masses found expression," and 
"were the simplest and most convenient means by 
which that expression could be ensured." 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 45 

The law only provided that certain offic.es should be 
filled, and the method of filling them was left entirely 
to popular impulse. By means of political machin- 
ery, the sentiment of two millions of citizens, com- 
posing one of the political parties of the country, is 
supposed to be concentrated in the will of the few 
hundred who happen to be members of a national con- 
vention. With reference to the prevailing issues to 
which that sentiment is attracted, doubtless the will 
of the masses is in a measure respected ; but, with ref- 
erence to the questions subordinated, the influences 
which surround these bodies lead to the substitution 
of the wishes of the individuals composing them. 

The power of political conventions is practically 
the power of the government. The successful party 
selects the Executive, who appoints all the officials of 
the nation, directly or through his agents, except the 
few composing its legislature. It names the issues 
and policy of the government. Its will is supreme 
within the limitations of constitutional authority, and 
frequently it is emboldened to overstep those bounds. 

The fixed partisan majorities in twenty-nine States 
of the Union enable the influences which control 
political conventions within them to possess as abso- 
lute a power over the government and the people as if 
no elections were held. No issues are discussed or 
passed upon by the masses, within the limits of the 



46 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

State, and the management of their domestic affairs is, 
therefore, without restriction, confided to these agencies 
and the elements which control them. The nomina- 
tion of the Democratic party in Georgia, or the Re- 
publican party in Maine, renders certain the control 
of the State ; and when it is secured, elections, 
with all their expensive paraphernalia, are useless for 
any purpose having reference to the internal conduct 
of the affairs of the State. 

It is, then, through these agencies that the corrupt 
influences which are exhibited in the movements of 
the government gain their foothold in the Nation, 
State and local municipalities. It is through this me- 
dium that the purse of the people and the resources 
of the country are surrendered. It is by these agen- 
cies that personal power is established, for the contest 
within them has reference to personal rather than 
political differences. It is the man who is chosen at 
the caucus and convention, and the principle which is 
adopted at the election. The qualifications of hon- 
esty, fidelity and capacity are taken, by compulsory 
circumstances, from the people, and remitted to these 
bodies ; and every advocate or participant in dishonest 
schemes seeking the bounty of government, rushes to 
this point to enforce the selection of those who pos- 
sess the companionable qualities which will ensure 
the gratification of his wishes. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 47 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 

When we shall have described the primary and con- 
ventions, and suggested how susceptible they are to 
the control of interested and selfish elements, the 
motives which would naturally impel those influences, 
and the importance of that control to them, we will 
have reached the point where it may be declared that, as 
such elements can, they do exercise their power. 

During the past ten years more than two-thirds of 
our national domain has been squandered or surren- 
dered to railroad corporations, tariffs have been passed 
for the especial purpose of protecting monopolies, the 
special legislation occupies more than two-thirds of 
the time of Congress ; Senators occupy seats in Con- 
gress under the Democratic name whose purpose is to 
secure legislation inimical to the principles of that 
organization ; railroad magnates like Tom Scott exert 
a controlling influence in the management of parties, 
and it is quite impossible to plant any political party 
in opposition to special legislation. The air is filled 
with rumors of combinations, and our recent history 
is replete with facts which demonstrate the omnipo- 
tence of these agencies in the manipulation of politi- 
cal machinery to the end that personal qualities suited 
to their wants may be selected. 

We look further and discover another class of evi- 



48 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

dence : the testimony of failures to reform public 
abuses. The history of civil service reform is that of 
attacks on an impregnable citadel, before which lie 
dead and wounded a thousand worthy efforts. The 
voice of the immense Granger movement and those 
independent efforts which hurled outside of party or- 
ganisation nearly one-half of their political adherents, 
is a testimony against the despicable system which 
would not permit them an expression within, and a 
direct evidence of the strongest character that the 
monopolists they went outside to oppose controlled 
the machinery of the existing parties. 

The interests of monopolists and office-holders are 
identical, and their allied association may be expected 
whenever either is attacked. Cameron, of Pennsyl- 
vania, is a monopolist and a representative of the office- 
holders ; and instinctively every legislator in the na- 
tion and States must either array the office-holding 
element dependent upon his will, with or in opposi- 
tion to the little monopolies which crave official favor. 
Opposition means a loss of influence, and unity is an 
element of greater political power. The reason of 
the repeated failures of the policies of civil service 
reform is that, in whatever phase, it substitutes some- 
thing in the place of the will of the legislator as the 
chief instrument of appointment. It compels the Sen- 
ator and Congressman to surrender the service of all 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 49 

appointees dependent upon his favor, and strikes at 
the heart of his own personal ambition. The rule is the 
same whether appointments are dependent'upon proven 
qualifications, in accordance with set rules, or removals 
are insisted upon because of participation in political 
manipulation. The first method will not be adopted, 
or will be only of temporary benefit, if adopted, so long 
as a system exists which renders valuable their ser- 
vices, simply because the delegates of the Congress 
which must enact it divest themselves of political 
power, and practically destroy their political ambition. 
So long as the system exists, it will remain a bribe to 
every legislator, which may be seized at any time the 
rules may be suspended or repealed. The policy of 
President Hayes will not outlive his own administra- 
tion, and it is the best evidence of the truth of his dec- 
laration that he will not be a candidate for a second 
term. Aside from other considerations, the policy of 
civil service reform would render his renomination im- 
possible. 

The explanation of these failures can be traced 
directly to the system. The declaration that " to the 
victors belong the spoils of victory," was not the vol- 
untary rule adopted by a single executive, but was 
the forced concession by the executive branch of gov- 
ernment to the superior power of the legislature. 
Their relations are ever inter-dependent ; and, well 
4 



50 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

knowing the necessity of independence of the Execu- 
tive, the founders of the government erected the 
Electoral College in which they reposed the sole au- 
thority to elect the president. The period when 
Congressional caucuses assumed the privilege of se- 
lecting the nominees for that office, is contemporary 
with the time when the executive began to apportion 
his patronage as rewards to the personal fidelity and 
partisan allegiance of the members of the legislative 
branch of government. It robbed at once the execu- 
tive of his independence and made the legislator al- 
most a despot. The establishment of national con- 
ventions did not lessen, but rather increased, the evil, 
for it made the senator the central orb, not only of 
those who were dependent upon the influence he pos- 
sessed over the executive, but of another class, who 
sought the favor of his own direct assistance as the 
maker of laws for their benefit. This class was ex- 
cluded from Congressional caucuses ; its entrance to 
conventions was easy. The resort of direct bribery 
to influence legislation addressed to the greed of a con- 
gressmen, was needless when a constant bribe to his 
political ambition was ever at hand. No policy of 
civil service reform which touches only the appointees 
of the president, can reach the numberless direct de- 
pendents upon the congressman and senator, or the 
multitude of local officials who are a part of the one 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 5 1 

combination, represented by the large star of national 
patronage with the lesser satellites grouped about it. 

The civil service reform policy, as every contest be- 
tween adherents of the same party, must be fought 
in the machinery of party organization, through which 
alone the party voice receives expression. The fate 
of Tyler and Johnson maybe invoked as examples for 
the profit of Mr. Hayes, and of the omnipotent power 
of Congressional authority. In the political conven-* 
tions the monopolists may say : " We admire the mo- 
tives of our own offspring, but the initiation of a 
policy which strikes at our political authority de- 
mands that the president must be crushed ; " and 
they forthwith proceed to crush him, not in the thun- 
dered utterances of angry debate, but with the poison 
of contemptuous silence and secret attack. 

Our reasonings bring us to the points stated at the 
beginning of our articles, viz. : that the people can 
and do only bestow their attention upon that class of 
legislation having a wide application — in which every 
citizen is interested. The mass of special or monop- 
oly legislation covers small portions of territory, and 
only in localities specially affected does it receive an 
impotent attention. Hence, the legislator, without 
impairing his party fidelity or endangering his ambi- 
tion before the mass of people, may do the service of 
small special interests — and receive its corrupt re* 



52 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

wards, without feeling the effect of popular dissatis- 
faction. The government is left wholly to his discre- 
tion and honesty. The Granger excitement in the 
west was aroused especially by the presence of these 
agencies, and the opposition of the farmers was di- 
rected to dethrone them. Like all independent move- 
ments, it forced a temporary respect to its wishes, 
but leaving untouched the system, they will soon re- 
• sume their former influence. 

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. 

" All elective officials are responsible to the people, 
because they are elected by the people." Such is a 
frequent expression, which seems to contain an asser- 
tion and a demonstration of its truth. It is a pleasant 
reflection to the citizen. It clothes him in the para- 
phernalia of . a sovereign. We shall not dispute the 
conclusion, but beg the reader to inquire with us into 
the exact measure of responsibility, and he may dis- 
cover that the proposition does not include all that it 
would seem to. 

Responsibility to the people possesses no such sig- 
nification. The will and action of the people are only 
disclosed by the voice of the majority ; and where that 
majority speaks with reference to acts other than 
those of the agent, or from a prejudiced stand-point, 
there is no individual responsibility to the people. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 53 

Where the party strength is sufficient to carry incom- 
petent officials into public stations by the force of its 
current, there exists neither fear upon the part of the 
agent nor honest judgment on the part of the princi- 
pal. The only fear of the former is that he may not 
be able to receive the nomination of his own party, 
and he feels himself accountable to it. The judg- 
ment of the principal is warped by the consideration 
of national concerns, and upon them it will receive 
expression. Every element of responsibility disap- 
pears in every locality where parties are uneven, so 
far as the voice of the people, expressed at elections, 
is concerned. Watchfulness, power to remove or ap- 
point, capacity to investigate, decision as to the mer- 
its of the individual, do not exist in the public mind, 
but prejudice upon external considerations usurps 
their places and controls the popular voice. 

The knowledge required to form a correct judg- 
ment and the elastic capacity on the part of the peo- 
ple to address their attention to the action of each in- 
dividual, are not possessed at one election ; and those 
who are influenced by his merits or demerits form . 
a factor insufficient either to alarm or encourage him. 

The degree of responsibility which can be exerted 
by the people does exist in the channels of party 
machinery. There each official receives attention, and 
others are ready to take his place if he fails to per- 



54 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

form the will of those who control it. The official 
fears them ; and they, if powerful enough, may con- 
trol him ; and the responsibility ensured to the ele- 
ments controlling those instrumentalities may be en- 
sured to the masses of the people by simply protect- 
ing them in the exercise of an equal voice within it. 
When the primary is controlled by riot and the con- 
ventions practically by bribery, this is denied. A 
writer, referring to the downfall of the Roman Re- 
public, indicates why it is denied. " Toward the end 
of the Republic," he states, " in proportion as the 
popular assemblies became more stormy, wise and 
moderate men, who everywhere are the most timid, 
fell into the habit of staying away. When it was 
seen that these assemblies usually ended in bloody 
quarrels, people that disliked strife ceased to attend. 
Cicero bitterly complains of this desertion of the 
Comitia, and speaks of certain laws as having been 
passed by a handful of citizens or even by those who 
had no right to vote. This," the writer adds, " ex- 
plains why so many Romans should have made so 
little difficulty about accepting the empire ; it was a 
very small matter for them to be deprived of political 
rights which they themselves had renounced." 

As stated before, the difference between the pri- 
mary and elections is that, at the former, the individ- 
ual is elected, and, at the latter, principles are de- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 55 

clared and voted upon, and, so far as his personal 
conduct is concerned, the individual responsibility of 
the official can only be ensured by removing the im- 
pediments which exclude the better class of citizens 
from the nominating election. It is made more direct 
by doing away with all intermediate bodies, and nom- 
inating him by the voice of the larger number com- 
posing a party. 

There is but one method of ensuring this result, 
and avoiding political conventions and caucuses and 
their attendant evils ; and that is to take the vote of 
citizens under the formalities of elections within their 
respective parties. The authority of the government 
is the prize of contention, and the two parties repre- 
sent the pros and cons of every controversy relating 
to its management. With one or the other, every 
class of sentiment must array itself to hope for a voice 
in public affairs. Where an election is final, division 
endangers the success of all having views in common ; 
and the statistics of every election demonstrate that, 
under no circumstances which admit the element of 
danger, will the people forget their natural fidelity to 
party. The case would not be different if each cit- 
izen was invested with the wisdom of a Solon, for so 
long as issues are possible, men will combine to rep- 
resent each side of the question presented, and of 
the sides there can exist but two. 



56 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

Let us suppose, however, that in the State of Iowa, 
where the Republicans have fifty thousand majority, 
a method was applied by which parties could separate 
into their constituent elements without endangering 
party success ; that Republicans, protected under the 
election laws, could nominate their candidate direct, 
and Democrats could do the same with respect to 
their candidate. How long would national issues be 
discussed in the election of State officers in that 
State ? 

A large portion of the Democrats knowing that suc- 
cess to their party would be impossible in any event, 
would not hesitate long in making a selection between 
the candidates of the opposing party ; and their party 
organization would utterly disappear in State affairs, 
while still asserting itself in the nation. The ultimate 
effect would be the formation of two new organiza- 
tions, battling on State issues for State authority, and 
at the nominating election the question of the honesty 
and capacity of candidates would receive the para- 
mount attention. The same characteristic would ap- 
pear in every lesser locality within the State. 

We reiterate the assertion that the policy of the 
Government, as an issue, admits of only two sides, rep- 
resented by two parties ; that the elements compos- 
ing these parties will, so long as only one election is 
permitted, devote their attention, almost exclusively, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 57 

to questions of the widest range, viz : those national 
in character ; that, whether the election is for State 
or national officers, it will reflect their will on the same 
subject. 

We discover, also, that the entire range of power 
essential to be exercised by the masses, which ensures 
a responsibility as positive as that exercised by a 
superior over his subordinate, may be possessed by 
permitting an election in which are chosen the quali- 
ties that give assurance that the policy approved will 
be carried into effect ; and this selection and approval 
of political policy can both be given only within the 
party. 

By such a system the voter would no longer be 
restricted to the choice of two men representing na- 
tional questions, and forced, if in a minority, to cast 
an ineffective vote for his party ; but each citizen, en- 
abled to select the best of several opponents, would 
become in State affairs an active agent. The final 
effect would be to utterly obscure all national ques- 
tions in State contests, and ensure the fullest respon- 
sibility on the part of every official in his respective 
sphere of action. 

We have discussed the importance of these local 
questions and State affairs. The tax imposed by 
these governments demonstrates the interest of citizens 
in their management. The assemblyman we send to, 



58 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

Albany is of far greater consequences to the city than 
the mayor we elect. The duties of one relate to the 
making of the fundamental law of the city — the 
charter which regulates the powers of all its officials — 
while the mayor is merely an executive officer. The 
Tweed Ring, the Canal Ring, the Insurance Rings, 
and the thousand Rings which pester every locality, 
whose combined peculations amount to many millions 
per year, bespeak the necessity of attention to these 
subjects. 

If the rule could be adopted by the citizens of a 
minority party, of supporting candidates independent 
of the regular organization of the majority party ; or, 
in other words, if Democrats would, in Republican 
districts, refuse to support their own organization and 
cast their votes for some Republican, the practical 
effect would be the same as that compelled by the 
adoption of the system proposed. Party questions 
would be eliminated, and only the capacity and hon- 
esty of candidates would be considered ; and local 
issues would be forced to the front. 

The citizen frequently is called from his daily avoca- 
tions to protest against the policy of Government, to 
advise as to its conduct, or to avoid unfair taxation. 
Did it ever occur to him that, as a member of the 
minority, he had nothing whatever to say, and as a 
member of the majority, his voice was only heard as 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 59 

a partisan, not in local, but it national concerns ? that 
the responsibility to him was of the most indirect 
character ? and that the defect lay in a system of elec- 
tion which compelled his vote for his own partisan 
candidate, because a division of party strength might 
result in defeat of his principles ? 

We leave it to him whether his duty to see that he 
is represented in the Government, is not a duty par- 
amount to every other. 



THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 6 1 



BOOK II, 

POLITICAL MACHINERY. 

The political machinery of parties has one legitimate 
purpose. Good government requires the selection for 
public positions of officials possessed of the qualities of 
honesty and competency of the highest possible order. 
Whatever may t>e the divergencies of views in respect 
to questions of principle or policy, the selfish interest 
of every citizen demands these qualities as the best 
safeguards of society. The relation of the citizen to 
his government is that of agent to principal ; his voice 
is expressed at elections and the majority ascertained 
presents the aggregate personage dictating the move- 
ment of the wheels of government. It is alive and 
active as to national issues ; it is dormant and dead 
as to personal qualities and local policies. If the 
body politic does not enforce its demand for political 
honesty, it is not because the people are forgetful of 
the importance of that quality, but because the means 
of expression are inadequate. Corruption, in all its 
forms addresses itself to the individual, and the 
qualities of mind essential to resist its insidious attacks, 
are to be found in personal character. The effect of 



62 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

policies is seen ; corruption is frequently secret and 
unseen. A party may be punished for evil effects 
resulting from mistaken policy, but the personal quali- 
ties of candidates, mingled with issues of great impor- 
tance, cannot control the action of voters, especially 
when viewed only through the glasses of heated parti- 
sanship. Practically, nothing is believed against the 
character of the nominee of one's own party. 

The agencies, then, which select the candidate, 
also elect him so far as his personal characteristics 
and his capacity to resist corrupt influences, are con- 
cerned. While the candidate may not be wilfully cor- 
rupt, he cannot avoid a feeling of responsibility to the 
powers and elements which control these organisms. 
He must submit to some of their wishes, or the 
promise of future advancement is lost. In those 
matters, in which the elements controlling political 
machinery have the largest interest, he will act as 
their agent or suffer their displeasure. 

Two men are presented by these agencies. The 
force of circumstances compels a choice between 
them. The distinctive tendencies of parties cannot 
be represented by the candidates unless they are 
competent. Party convictions can form no basis for 
public favor unless candidates understand the princi- 
ples they profess. A partisan contest is meaningless 
as between ignorant men. So with honesty. No reli- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 63 

ance can be placed upon the professions of men unless 
their integrity gives assurance that they will do as 
they promise. 

Hence, parties, through their machinery, are bound 
to furnish intelligent and honest agents to apply their 
professed principles to the government ; and to the 
adaptability of conventions to ensure that end, let us 
give our attention. 

These bodies are agents of the political party they 
represent. Each individual within them is the agent 
of his constituency. The nature of that constituency 
we will leave to be inferred from our discussion of the 
structure of political primaries. In this relation of 
agent to principal one word in the language is more 
expressive than any other. That word is responsibility. 
It indicates in our government the only hold the 
people have upon their public servants. Without it 
representation is impossible. 

If in the course of our reasoning it shall be demon-, 
strated that there intervenes agencies which assume 
the important function of nominating all officials ; that 
in them the masses of the people have no representa- 
tion of their honest instincts, no further explanation 
of the presence of corruption will be needed. 

That scheme which sought to reflect the public will 
in an extensive territory, and rendered possible the 
government of the union, will prove an ignominous 



64 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

failure where representation is not associated in every 
instance with responsibility. In appearance, every 
official is responsible to the people ; the spirit of re- 
sponsibility is written on every line of the Constitu- 
tion of the States and Nation. The executive is 
elected by and is responsible to the people ; and every 
official he appoints is responsible to him. In fact, 
however, executive responsibility extends just so far 
and no farther than the machinery of elections per- 
mits of his selection by the people as the agent to exe- 
cute the policy which party or public sentiment 
enforces. That portion which elevates him as dis- 
tinguished from his party associates is the caucus and 
convention, and to the agencies which control them 
he is primarily responsible. As he could hope for 
no re-election without their assistance, his personal 
responsibility to the people is limited to the amount 
of public sentiment which is filtered through the 
poisonous channels of the machinery of political or- 
ganizations. 

The measure of representation in the selection of 
the qualities of honor secured to the people depends, 
first, upon the influence they possess at the primaries ; 
and, second, upon the responsibility to which conven- 
tions are held to the caucus assemblies. Responsi- 
bility is of a double nature, as stated. A convention 
may be responsible for its action to the elements which 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 6$ 

elect it, speaking as a whole ; and the individuals com- 
posing it are responsible just in proportion as the 
part they perform is known to the constituency 
which selects them. The responsibility of individual 
members in all legislative bodies, is sought to be se- 
cured by compelling a record of yeas and nays upon 
the passage of bills ; the individual responsibility of 
the executive is assured by the publicity of his appoint- 
ments and the nature of his duties. When an im- 
proper nomination is made, a division of responsibility 
among all who compose a convention, weakens its 
force ; and where nothing serves to indicate the ac- 
tion of an individual delegate, each is as independent 
of control by those whom he represents, as he would 
be if he exercised his despotic functions for a lifetime 
unsubjected to any restraint upon his own inclinations. 
In nearly every convention, national, State, city or 
town, the votes of individual delegates in the selection 
of candidates are veiled by a secret ballot. Not 
knowing for whom its representative voted, whether 
for ah upright or dishonest candidate, no constitu- 
ency can hold him to judgment. Frequent instances 
have occurred where delegates have been purchased in 
advance by a corrupt candidate whose nomination has 
been frustrated only by an open ballot. The stigma, 
lasting for a lifetime, attaching to the action of every 
delegate who voted for such a candidate, was sufficient 



66 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

to overcome the influence of money. The publicity 
of the dishonest vote ensured the publicity of the 
bargain which secured it. 

Responsibility cannot exist without publicity. Here- 
in the political machinery, performing functions far 
more important and vital than those performed by the 
people at the polls, loses sight of that principle which 
is the corner stone of representative government. With 
it, goes the power to reward or punish ; without it, 
the power of removal and the principle of accounta- 
bility which render the lesser agent the reflection of 
the will of his superior, would be a nullity and a 
farce. 

The influence of responsible administration may be 
illustrated by the methods of executive action. The 
chief magistrate selects a cabinet of persons whose 
qualities and sentiments are congenial to his own ; 
and they in turn appoint the thousand subordinates 
to carry out the executive policy. Whatever may 
be the requirements of that policy the agents are per- 
fectly obedient to their chiefs, knowing that removal 
follows a failure to respect them. The effects of the 
action of the central power is felt in every section of 
the country. Even the sentiments of the servants 
accord with those of the master. When President 
Johnson exercised the power of removal which, for a 
short time, he possessed, most remarkable conversions 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 67 

followed among the office-holders in the land ; and 
when, afterwards, the senate assumed the control of 
patronage, the backward movement was quite as 
spontaneous. 

There are other characteristics of political conven- 
tions which unsuit them to perform the legitimate 
functions of their establishment. The smallness of 
the number usually composing them, invites the pres- 
sence of bribery, and the haste of their action denies 
opportunity for consideration of the vast matters 
which are at stake within them. When the legislature 
considers a charter for a city, or votes a small appro- 
priation for an individual, a discussion of the justice, 
the equity and the purpose of the act exhibits it in all 
its bearings. Conventions, performing a duty which 
reacts almost vitally upon vast industries and whose 
influence is of a most lasting and impressive character, 
seldom bestow more than a few hours' discussion upon 
the subject which called them together. The absence 
of compensation to delegates, also invites bribery ; 
for compensation marks clearly the line of honest 
value for service, and leaves no room for quibbling 
about the moral distinctions which distinguish right 
from wrong by the merest shades. The cost of travel- 
ling, and the expense of lodging are important to each 
delegate ; and the acceptance of their value, while it 
seems less repugnant than the taking of an open 



68 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

bribe, breaks down a barrier of honest independence 
which serves to divide the pathway of duty, from 
the roadway of corruption. 

Let us, then, array this small number of individuals, 
irresponsible to the people, performing their functions 
at their own expense and in the most hasty manner, 
in the presence of those influences, whose very life 
depend upon the results of their action. 

THE INFLUENCES SURROUNDING CONVENTIONS. 

The element primarily interested in the action of a 
cbnvention is the office-holding and office-seeking 
class. A knowledge of the antecedents of the mem- 
bers of a National Convention would disclose that a 
large proportion were either participants in official 
favors, or expectant of them. Many persons attend 
these gatherings for the purpose of establishing their 
claim to office, and are therefore ready to barter their 
votes for pledges. In the absence of compensation, 
as human nature is, in times when some ulterior motive 
is sought to explain even the most patriotic action, it 
is difficult to find any adequate influence which would 
prompt a citizen to go thousands of miles to attend a 
political convention. Many, doubtless, for the honor 
of the position, are impelled to accept the trust of 
delegate, but a large proportion will be found to have 
a more selfish and controlling motive. The recent 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 69 

conventions which nominated candidates for the 
presidency, were attended by many thousand officials 
feeding on government bread ; and one was encircled 
by car loads of people from the slums of leading cities 
of the Union. The vast majority of the persons pres- 
ent were political workers, whose labors had been 
rewarded by positions of trust ranging from weighers 
in a custom-house to governors of a State, from 
city aldermen to United States senator. 

The control of political patronage is usually con- 
fided to the senator from a State. Whether this 
results from an implied arrangement between the 
executive and the senator by which one is to nomi- 
nate and the other to confirm, is a question which will 
not be discussed. The senator distributes his favors 
among the respective members of Congress, and there- 
by each is possessed of more or less personal power 
which can be devoted to political uses. We hear of 
Sherman controlling appointments in Ohio ; Conk- 
ling in New York ; Blaine in Maine ; Cameron in 
Pennsylvania, and the so-called carpet-bag senators 
distributing the Federal offices in the South. In gen- 
eral, the members of the highest legislative branch 
have had the largest influence in distributing political 
patronage, and those of the House have controlled it 
in a lesser degree. It is seldom that persons not in 
government positions are consulted. It is gratifying 



JO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

to know that the present administration is attempting 
a reform in this direction, and if successful, it will do 
much towards elevating the independence of both 
branches of the legislature of the nation. Past expe- 
rience has filled the public mind with misgiving, as a 
reform of this kind means a contest with the legisla- 
tive department — a power capable of crippling any 
executive and of enforcing any demand. 

Concentrated upon a political convention, a share of 
whose members are already under obligations to an 
administration, what a power must be exercised by 
eighty thousand officials, in the United States. With 
a single exception the eight or ten candidates for the 
presidency mentioned in the most recent convention 
of one party, were holding Federal offices ; and at the 
convention of the opposing organization each person 
competing for the nomination, by virtue of his office 
as governor, controlled the patronage of his State. 

These are not all the elements interested in the 
selection of persons suited to their purposes for official 
stations. Other combinations with far greater mo- 
tives are as directly affected by the action of conven- 
tions. In the selection of president they feel much 
solicitation. The possession of the veto power enables 
that officer to defeat corrupt legislation, by speaking 
with the force equivalent to two-thirds of the legisla- 
tive members. They want not office, but lands ; not 



IN THE UNITED STATES. ' J I 

patronage, but credit, to assist monopolizing enter- 
prises. In elections they are interested in the politi- 
cal principles of the candidate ; in the conventions, 
as to their personal characteristics which involve the 
question of pliability. If the nominee is opposed to 
government subsidies, he will meet with their vigilant 
and bitter animosity ; if the candidate presented to 
the convention is honest and straightforward, he is cer- 
tain to suffer their displeasure. The extent and influ- 
ence of these agencies is measured only by the 
capital of the industries of the nation ; and the 
ready means of combination are furnished by the elec- 
tric telegraph. No locality possessed of a manufac- 
tory, whose interests are affected by law, fails to feel 
the effect of its influence in political affairs ; and it is 
not difficult to discover that the proportion of delegates 
whom these agencies consent to send to conventions 
is large enough to form an efficient power to protect 
their interests. The ordinary citizen has no such 
inducement ; he cannot spare the expense of an ex- 
tended trip, and his interests, considered individually, 
are not sufficient to attract him from the every-day 
concerns of his life. 

The special interests of leading railroad magnates 
who possess the control of a few large corporations 
chiefly find expression within the doors of a national 
convention ; and their influence is dependent upon the 



72 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

opportunity which the structure affords for secret ac- 
tion and the instability of the character of the mem- 
bers composing the body. The corrupting tendencies 
of monopolized power were exposed a few years ago 
by the discovery of the Credit-Mobilier stock in the 
hands of leading members of Congress. 

Within the States the influences which are inter- 
ested in the action of conventions are of the same na- 
ture. These agents holding office, expectant of office, 
and those comprising the elements interested in State 
legislation are always found within these bodies. The 
insurance companies, the gas companies, the railroad 
companies, the canal and Tammany Rings, are ever 
present by their representatives at every State con- 
vention held in the State of New York. The entrance 
of these influences in the legislatures of States fill 
them with ready tools, who assume the reins of lead- 
ership, and with innocent nobodies follow the course 
laid out by their intellectual superiors. 

It is seldom that these agencies are loud in their 
manifestations at conventions. The office-holders take 
the precedence, and seem to be the impelling agents. 
The monopolized interests furnish the means with 
which campaigns are conducted, and are " the power 
behind the throne." Arrayed against them even 
eighty thousand office-holders would be insufficient ; 
compromising with them, their combined forces give 



IN THE UNITED STATES. ?$ 

the senator or representative who will accept it, a 
power in the State or nation, which, if exercised 
through the channels of political machinery, becomes 
as absolute as that of a despot. They form the foun- 
dations upon which rests the personal power of those 
who are willing to become the automatons of cor- 
porate monopolists in the distribution of legislative 
favors. 

The records of legislation divulge alike the purpose 
of these monopolists and the ease of its accomplish- 
ment. Direct bribery, a process most dangerous and 
difficult, would be the only resort in controlling legis- 
lation, if the members of the legislative branch of 
government were not amenable to the influences which 
control political machinery. Bribery is relieved of 
its sting, but is not lessened in its malicious effects, 
when it appeals to the ambition of the legislator; and 
those effects are apparent in recent history of congres- 
sional action. The grant in ten years time of 200,- 
000,000 of acres of public domain, with bills pending 
three years ago, for more than is left ; and a tariff 
conferring a revenue scarcely forty per cent of its 
cost in enhanced values to consumers, leave no lack 
of indications to denote the method of paying for 
value received. 

Their power is also exercised in the political pri- 
maries. It is here that the influence of a few men. 



74 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

combined together, may nip in the bud the aspirations 
of candidates, for herein is the starting-point in the 
race for political favor. 

It is needless to discuss the question whether agen- 
cies so open to the entrance of these powerful combi- 
nations, which in themselves or by their agents could 
hardly present at the polls two hundred thousand 
votes, are suited to represent the wish of five millions 
of electors whose general interest depends upon the 
possession by officials of the highest qualities of na- 
ture. 

The right of these interests to that protection which 
their capital or numbers demands will not be disputed. 
In the abuse of this right the evil consists. Class leg- 
islation, though it may be wrong in principle, is not 
necessarily dishonest ; but we insist that a system 
which permits individuals, comparatively few in num- 
ber, by means which, whether directly or indirectly 
corrupt, are necessarily vicious and immoral, is one 
dangerous in its consequences, not alone to public 
morality, but as well to public liberty. 

In uneven States the arts of bribery have no em- 
ployment at elections that are without significance, 
but will exhibit themselves in every form at the State 
convention of the leading party. In lesser localities, 
where the possibility of overturning a considerable 
majority appears, it becomes the resort of the weaker 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 75 

organization, while candidates of the stronger dispense 
their promises and gifts upon their political friends 
who may influence the action of the political conven- 
tion. All the agencies, then, which in closely con- 
tested States are employed to influence the popular 
will at elections, in those States where nomination 
means an election, are concentrated to control the ac- 
tion of the body that makes it. 

THE PRIMARY AND ITS ABUSES. 

The first stage in the process of nomination is the 
appointment of a delegate to a political convention. 
He is chosen at a meeting of citizens. This meeting 
in theory, attended by residents or voters of a small 
locality like an election district, is called a primary. 
When in former times the candidates for lesser offices 
were nominated directly by mass meetings, as the 
meetings were usually controlled by the residents of 
the sections in which they were held, the principle of 
representation was applied. Candidates were selected 
by delegates chosen from all the townships or wards 
within the boundaries over which the official was to 
serve. 

These primaries are not legal establishments, but 
have their origin in common consent. The manner 
of holding them differs in various localities, but in 
general no safeguards to ensure fairness are placed 



^6 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

about them. They are conducted without much re- 
gard to formality or decorum, and as a rule rather 
than the exception, " everything is fair " within them, 
corrupt or dishonest influences exert a controlling 
sway. 

Their functions would be of the most important 
character if the delegate selected within them was 
responsible. As it is, they are the only agencies in 
which the people exert any influence whatever, in 
the selection of candidates. Where the majority of a 
political party is fixed in any State or locality, prac- 
tically the vote of citizens to be of the slightest ef- 
fect must be cast here ; and it is the only place where- 
in the qualifications of candidates, relating to their 
honesty, fidelity and capability, can be considered. 
As a part of the machinery performing the functions 
alluded to, these meetings have a most important 
bearing upon the political condition of the State or 
nation. 

The law prescribes the formalities of action which 
ensure the peaceable conduct of elections. Law it- 
self is formality. Parliamentary law secures the con- 
venient transaction of the business of deliberative as- 
semblies. Both are intended to prevent the will of 
the few from controlling the will of the many. Neither 
of these classes of law are known at political pri- 
maries, and everything depends upon the character of 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 77 

the persons composing such gatherings. If a small 
clique can set up its will, and by fair or unfair means, 
control them, there is nothing in any law relating to 
these assemblies to prevent it. 

As primaries are in every respect like elections, 
except that the latter are conducted in accordance 
with the formalities of the law, we may look within 
them for those classes of evils which the law forbids 
at elections. 

First, there is established at elections a Board of 
Inspectors to preside over them. Full authority to 
maintain regularity and order, to enforce obedience 
to their lawful commands, to preserve peace and 
good order around the polls, and to keep access there- 
to open and unobstructed, is possessed by these of- 
ficers. They may call upon the sheriff or constable, 
or, in his absence, may deputize any other citizen to 
take a person refusing to obey their commands into 
custody. It is needless to say that in the absence of 
any authorized body of this character, the primaries 
are conducted usually in the utmost disorder. The 
inspectors are clothed with other powers at elections 
to enforce authority and to protect the peaceable cit- 
izen in the exercise of his rights. They must pro- 
vide ballot-boxes of a particular kind, deposit ballots 
in a particular way, keep poll lists, challenge voters, 
count the ballots and declare the result in a formal 



78 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

manner, and are punishable if they fail to perform 
their duties as the law requires. 

Penalties are enacted to punish for illegal voting 
by convicts, for false swearing, and to punish the in- 
spector for permitting illegal voting. For influen- 
cing or disturbing voters, for providing or paying for 
entertainments, for furnishing money for attendance 
of voters, for deceiving voters as to their ballots, for 
obstructing the polls, for non-residents of the district 
or State voting, for voting more than once, for procur- 
ing illegal voting, and for illegal voting generally, 
penalties are prescribed. These provisions, though 
not observed with the utmost strictness, in all cases, 
go far towards attaining the objects sought, and exert 
a temporizing influence upon the unlawful elements, 
which, by the absence of these requirements, have 
full sway at the primaries. 

The abuses which prevail to the greatest extent in 
the primaries are the voting by non-residents, repeat- 
ing or voting more than once, and voting by minors. 
We are not aware that any guard exists to prevent 
the voting of the female sex, and the advocates of 
woman's rights may find therein an open field for the 
exercise of the franchise in a manner more effective 
than it could be employed at elections. There are 
fortunately few convicts, and therefore few abuses by 
them. At elections few illegal votes are cast by non- 



IN THE UNITED" STATES. " 79 

residents of the election districts, while at primaries 
in cities they form on an average nearly one-fourth 
of those who participate. Voting more than once is 
of frequent occurrence ; and the reason more votes 
are not duplicated and more non-residents are not im- 
ported, arises from the fact that they cannot be had in 
time, or that success has been already assured. 

How useless it is to discuss the question of fairness 
at the primaries ! The facts are plain upon their state- 
ment, and the results secured at elections present with 
equal clearness the remedy. The leading political 
authority on New York primaries declared it impossible 
to conduct primary elections fairly in that city, an 
opinion which was most emphatically concured in 
by his antagonist, Mr. Morrissey. 

Another abuse of a most important nature exists 
which the provisions of the law to which we have 
alluded do not apply and cannot prevent. It is the 
attending by the voters of one political party at the 
caucuses or primaries held under the auspices of 
their opponents. No one knows the political convic- 
tions or intentions of a voter but himself, and unless 
he is prominent in politics, it would be useless to pre- 
vent his voting whenever and wherever he pleases. 
Thus he may attend every political caucus of every 
organization, and experience has demonstrated that 
there is a class of men who by doing this control 



SO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

primaries and elect delegates of one organization in 
the interest of a Ring whose chieftain may be a 
shining light in the opposing party. In the city, 
where the writer resides, at the most recent primary 
assemblies, in five out of the nine wards, more votes 
were cast at the primary elections of one party than 
there were voters in the wards, notwithstanding the 
fact that one half of the genuine electors of the party 
did not attend them at all. 

These institutions, for we cannot consider them por- 
tions of a system without shocking a sense of propriety, 
also afford an opportunity for the exhibitions of the 
inventive genius of roguery. There are tricks in the 
trade of politics as well as others ; and when a snap 
judgment is taken by the election by acclamation of 
sets of delegates, and prompt adjournments follow at 
the precise hour without reference to the correctness 
of the time-pieces, the result is as completely accom- 
plished by five persons as it could be by five hundred. 
In most cities and counties, no tribunal whatever is 
established to decide upon contests of delegates or the 
fairness of primary elections. 

It is the only organization of individuals which has 
no rules for its government, and those composing it 
are usually the most ready to abuse the rights of 
others. The village debating club proceeds in its 
business guided by some of the principles of parlia- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 8 1 

mentary law ; every corporation follows the lines of 
the statute, and conforms the details of its action to 
the requirements of its constitution and by-laws. 
Here, the only authority is that of physical force, and 
a few rioters are of more value than five times their 
number of peaceable citizens, for their voting is unre- 
stricted, while the inoffensive attendant may be driven 
away. Bribery, which is most indispensable at the 
point where the question is one purely of personal 
supremacy, is influential at the primary. The statute 
is absurd which says to the candidate who has pur- 
chased a nomination, equivalent to an election, that he 
must not use his money at the election polls. 

Such, then, are the evils of informality which ex- 
hibit themselves at the primaries. We have feebly 
described their nature. Their effects are apparent to 
every citizen. The absence of formality is an invita- 
tion to mercenary influences, to the power of brute 
force, and the greedy instincts of selfishness to enter 
the precincts of the caucus. In this place they enthrone 
themselves. The respectable citizen discovers their 
presence, and, unguarded in his rights, is compelled to 
abandon these assemblies. Engaged in the ordinary 
avocations of commerce, he has not the talent or op- 
portunity to study the chicanery practised therein, 
nor has he the inclination or hardihood to brave the 
voice of ruffianism. If he deigns to step within the 



82 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

caucus, he is a silent and unobtrusive spectator, and 
he leaves it determined to select the best of two men, 
the fruit of the same agencies. It is useless to ask 
good citizens to brave the compact force of organization. 
It offers to them an impossible task. 

How is it with the candidate ? The employment 
of bribery in its varied forms, ruffianism and 
riot are essentials to success. Through these agen- 
cies, he must use the tools or forget his aspira- 
tions. Using them, he can no longer respect himself, 
for he commits a violation of the moral law. Need 
we be surprised, therefore, that a scheme of fraud 
involving hundreds of millions of dollars are enacted 
into law by the nearly unanimous voice of the legisla 
tors of the empire State ; that not a member of one 
political party was found to protest against the selec- 
tion of a speaker whose conversion was the work of 
an hour between the meeting of the assembly and the 
time for the election of that officer ; that fraud is 
synonymous with politics, and that vast organizations 
uphold by their strength corrupt men on the pinnacles 
of political power. 

The wording of calls for political primaries are false- 
hoods upon their face. They invite all citizens and 
repel all who deserve the name. Limited in their lan- 
guage to office-holders and all interested in the dis- 
tribution of political favors, they would justify the 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 8$ 

attendance of nearly all who, in fact, lend their pres- 
ence to these gatherings. 

A caucus in its purpose is an election. The human 
mind can conceive of no election which, in its essen- 
tial aspects, is not a fair one. An unfair election is a 
misnomer. When unfairly conducted it is a species 
of jugglery, and loses its vital attribute as an expres- 
sion of the popular will. To all who have thought 
upon this subject, such must seem this portion of the 
machinery of political parties. Immoral in the extreme, 
it is fraught with danger to the body politic. 

We have before us a volume. It contains over one 
hundred and fifty pages of carefully worded specifica- 
tions which seem necessary to ensure fairness at elec- 
tions. In this book of the election laws of New York 
State are minute directions to inspectors, full state- 
ments of the rights of citizens, and penalties for their 
violation. Recent experience has demonstrated that 
these enactments hardly suffice to ensure honest elec- 
tions where the contest is less of personal than of 
political interest. If the subject of controversy was 
of purely a personal character — where the interests 
of men, separated from that of party, were involved 
— the task of securing a fair adjustment of the purely 
selfish desires would be more difficult. 

A wise legislation would make the penalties more 
stringent, the definitions of duties more careful, and 



84 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

the guards against bribery more scrutinizing. An ex- 
act description of the qualifications of voters, a care- 
ful surveillance over the election to the end that those 
possessed of the right, and only those may vote, and 
provisions for the exact record of votes cast, ought 
to be ensured. 

A foreigner examining our institutions would be 
amazed at the absence of these provisions to secure 
fairness of expression at the only place where the re- 
sponsibility of candidates is to be secured, so far as 
their personal qualities are involved ; and he would 
not be surprised that every scheme of trickery, un- 
forbidden by the law, should compete for advantage 
and success. 

No laws exist defining the qualifications of voters. 
Hence, all who claim the right and who possess the 
physical prowess to enforce it, may vote. 

The sober suggestion to every observer of political 
primaries is that they are open to every improper in- 
fluence, which utterly destroys their utility for the 
purposes they ought to subserve ; that, the moral law 
being the only criterion of the action of those in- 
terested, the candidate who obeys it is certain of de- 
feat by the man whom it does not restrain, and who, 
by illegal advantages, may double his forces ; that the 
presumption against every candidate who succeeds is 
that he did so by the employment of the means which, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 85 

if not corrupt, are at least unfair — particularly in cities ; 
and that they are disreputable gatherings from which 
reputable men ought to and do absent themselves, 
though it divests them of all the influence they pos- 
sess as free citizens. 

THE POLITICAL RINGS OF NEW YORK. 

Practical illustrations of the sources of public ex- 
penditure and the organization of rings to control it, 
are so frequent that material is ever-ready by which 
their methods of action can be explained. At the 
present time the State is engaged in a work of ex- 
travagant magnificence, viz., the erection of a State 
capitol. The outlay of $ 1 5,000,000, which it will cost, 
could illy be spared from the treasury of the people. 
When the "true inwardness" of the scheme is ex- 
posed, its corrupting effects will appear in their most 
glaring light. The building is the foundation of 
political power of many of the leading men of the 
State. It is the stock in trade of every political as- 
pirant for legislative honors. Every assemblyman 
who has influence in the higher circles of the leading 
political organization uses it to lure workingmen and 
mechanics into his political service at the primaries, 
by promising his efforts to afford them work upon it. 
Thousands of men have applied and await the sum- 
mons to begin work in places well filled by a few hun- 



86 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

dred. It was part of a grand system inaugurated by 
Tweed to intrench himself into political power and 
enrich himself out of the funds of tax-payers. 

The building up of Tweed's influence presents a 
most striking commentary on the system of political 
machinery. There are thousands of Tweeds in the 
State, but only one whose fame extends to the boun- 
daries of the world. The system of fraud inaugurated 
by him was not of his invention. He used on a grand 
scale the means which are indispensible to political 
influence wherever the present arrangement of politi- 
cal machinery exists. He readily perceived that the 
greatest power was the greatest patronage ; and citi- 
zens' now feel that patronage is the equivalent of taxa- 
tion. 

Personal power begins at the primaries. These as- 
semblies were practically deserted by fair minded and 
peaceable citizens. Mr. Tweed had been deputy street 
commissioner and chairman of the Tammany Hall 
general committee. He saw his way to political 
power by distributing patronage among the laboring 
men, who of all classes are most easily attracted to 
primaries. He began his career as president of the 
department of public works, and inaugurated vast 
schemes of public improvements. Whatever strength- 
ened his own political influence, increased the power 
of all whose assent was necessary to establish the 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 8? 

system. Boulevards were laid out ; a new court house 
was begun ; the central park was beautified ; political 
offices were filled with sinecurists; the courts with 
Cardozas and Dowlings ; street widenings and im- 
provements were frequent. An army of thousands 
of laborers were put to work, and living by the bene- 
ficent power of their chieftain they swore ready alle- 
giance to him. Their influence was powerful in the 
primaries. They controlled them in his interest. 
Where no qualifications were needed to vote, and no 
restriction existed as to the frequency of its exercise at 
the same meeting, and where the means of colonization 
from district to district were conveniently at hand, it 
would be doing grave injustice to Tweed to question 
that he used every available method to extend his 
power. He was the great head centre, and as the 
powers which were his own and looked to him for 
direction, exceeded those of all other influences com- 
bined, every dishonest element readily became sub- 
missive to his will, as well as accessories to the ac- 
complishment !of his purposes, and participants in 
the fruits of his victory. Dishonesty has no resisting 
agencies in the presence of overwhelming power, and 
measures success by the amount of its profits. 

The system of political management connected 
with the machinery of caucuses in New York is ad- 
mirably suited to exclude the possibility of opposition 



88 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

to the will of the leading agent. The head of the 
party is the dispenser of patronage, and the general 
committee is the agency by which the favors of po- 
litical power are distributed. It controls the nomina- 
tion of a ticket which contains the names of at least 
fifty persons voted for throughout an assembly dis- 
trict. Though a large majority of citizens acting in- 
dependently might disapprove of most of the names, 
the opposition would be so distributed as not to af- 
fect the result. The ticket presented is always elect- 
ed and usually without a contest. The delegates so 
chosen perform a duty which has already been fully 
laid out. The will of the central authority is su- 
preme, and rebellion against it is certain to receive a 
prompt and effective punishment. 

The Democratic majority of 50,000 in the city 
would lead Mr. Tweed to give no concern to the elec- 
tion. Established in the primaries, his power was 
fixed as firmly as a rock. 

Mr. Tweed did not stop here. With the Democratic 
organization of the city in his hands, he saw the way 
to the highest political power in the State. He was 
elected to the Senate from the wards comprising the 
slums of the city. Accompanied by twenty-one as- 
semblymen, bound to himself and elected ostensibly 
by Tammany, he was already possessed of a number 
nearly large enough to control the Democratic legis- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 89 

lative caucus. The same system of extravagance was 
inaugurated here. The canal Ring, sustained by the 
influence which controlled the primaries and conven- 
tions along the Erie canal, readily acceded to a union 
which promised increased peculations in whose fruits 
it would share. New schemes for employing labor 
were inaugurated in nearly every county ; railroads 
were built from place to place, and their managers be- 
came the first politicians in their respective localities. 
Tweed, as he had been the centre of authority in the 
city, became the central orb in the State; while 
every county had its lesser satellites. There were no 
political principles at stake, and personal power, es- 
tablished through the primaries, became the supreme 
end of political ambition. The taxpayers were bound 
hand and foot through them, and compelled to meet 
the expenses of the experiments. The thousand 
schemes springing from one centre, inaugurated by 
the legislative power, increased the debt of the city of 
New York nearly $100,000,000 ; and that of the State 
outside nearly the same amount — all in the space of 
three years. Not a dollar of the amount was expend- 
ed by consent of the people given in the only legiti- 
mate way ever before known, by an election in the 
localities immediately interested. The effect of this 
legislation was to build up the personal power of cor- 
rupt men in the respective localities, who were en- 



90 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

abled to fill their own coffers from the people's pock- 
ets, with the assistance of those to whom they fur- 
nished employment in exchange for services at po- 
litical primaries and conventions. 

It is somewhat interesting to follow Mr. Tweed in 
the committee rooms. " In the last Senate/' says a 
brief biographical sketch, " he was a member of the 
committee on finance, charitable and religious so- 
cieties and Internal affairs of towns and counties." 
In the present Senate be is chairman of the commit- 
tee on municipal affairs and charitable and religious 
societies." The significance of these positions will 
be understood. The finance committee reports the 
supply or appropriation bill ; charitable and religious 
associations were receiving vast appropriations. Re- 
ligion was lulled to silence while Tweed was stealing 
from taxpayers. The committee on municipal affairs 
was where the famous charter was hatched. These 
committees, and those on roads and bridges, rail- 
roads, public buildings, insurance (a so-called strik- 
ing committee) and Printing, were controlled by the 
persons less than ten in number who on each formed 
a majority. The intimate relations of these commit- 
tees to labor are immediately perceived. In the as- 
sembly, on the ways and means, canals, railroads, in- 
surance, affairs of cities and villages, charitable and 
religious societies, judiciary, and printing, ten mem- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 9 1 

bers held more positions than the remaining one hun- 
dred and eighteen. K. S. Randall, a man of high 
honor, who had been frequently favored by the peo- 
ple, and was once elected secretary of State, was per- 
mitted to distinguish himself as chairman of the joint 
library and public education committee. 

Thus the wants of rings were supplied through 
this corrupt legislature, and thus public patronage 
awarded to labor, under the guise of useful public im- 
provements, erected cliques in every county, which 
exerted a controlling influence in the primaries and 
conventions of both political organizations. They 
formed the foundation stone upon which rested the 
central superstructure. The same system of fraud, 
the same methods, the same policies, exerted at the 
same points, were the characteristics of the whole 
structure, and of each of its parts ; and the people 
have no more reason to trust the participants in the 
fraud than they have for trusting the chieftain. 

THE METHODS OF RINGS. 

In his lofty attitude, with the destinies of a State at 
his mercy, Mr. Tweed may be contemplated as one of the 
possibilities of a government controlled in theory by the 
popular will. At no time could he have rallied to his 
support a majority of the people of the State, or a ma- 
jority of his own political associates among the masses. 



92 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

It was only by controlling the machinery of the party 
that he could transform, by unfair processes, yet not 
necessarily illegal, a small minority of public benefi- 
ciaries into controlling agencies in command of a po- 
litical organization. Every motive which prompted the 
desire for increased power demanded also increased 
expenditure ; and the very essence and strength of 
the system was proportionate to the number of those 
who, participating in its profits, became the pillars 
which sustained it. In elections, economy is the 
principle which merits and receives public favor ; in 
the caucus, the extent of power depended upon the 
extent of patronage. 

The personal government thus established in the 
State by the seizure of the public legislature was as 
wide and powerful in influencing the action of officials 
who shared its benefits as if exercised by a man who 
possessed the authority to dismiss every public officer 
under his direction. Hitherto, the government of the 
State and counties required few public officials remov- 
able in a way lawfully prescribed. Now, new purposes 
of government were found ; methods were devised and 
put in operation by which a few controlling minds in a 
locality could seize upon the purse and credit of all ; 
thousands of new offices, disconnected with the gov- 
ernment proper and yet paid by its means, were es- 
tablished, and at the foundation of the structure, as the 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 93 

fulcrum, were twenty thousand laborers who performed 
one duty with their shovels, and another service in 
the management of primaries under the direction of 
their employers. 

Under such an administration how impossible was 
honesty in any department ! The implied contract 
was the same to every mind which assisted the func- 
tions of government. Obedience, secrecy, fraud were 
the essentials to the preservation of power in the cen- 
tral head, and prompt retribution was certain to fol- 
low the first symptoms of resistance. Service was 
given for service, and reward followed reward. 

The means adopted to dethrone Tweed and his 
agents are no less significant than his power. The 
section of the Democratic party that opposed his de- 
signs was powerless. Its adherents formed a vast 
majority even in the city, hut that majority would be 
overawed by fraud in the primaries if they attempted 
to speak within the organization. Tweed, confident 
of his strength, hurled a defiance at the people and 
asked, " What are you going to do about it ? " Through 
the political machinery nothing could be done. 

There was one agency which the Tammany leader 
had overlooked. Parties and leaders had changed, the 
people were completely at his mercy, the courts were 
filled with his tools, but the law had not changed. 
Though the system was based throughout upon fraud. 



94 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

the moment specific acts amounting to crimes were 
discovered, the law had begun to move. The moral 
sense of the community was then aroused, and twenty- 
five thousand Democrats voting with their opponents, 
elected honest judges. The law seizing the great 
public criminals, forced some into dungeons and 
others into exile. 

The system by which the power of Tweed was at- 
tained still remains unchanged and awaits another 
agent to employ it. The subordination of State issues 
to those of a general nature, and the existence of large 
party majorities in localities, ensures to the few indi- 
viduals who gain control of a political organization, a 
power which may be perpetuated until the law steps 
in, a power which can only be preserved by feeding 
the elements which sustain it. By seizing the legisla- 
tive branch it may extend its pernicious influence in 
every section of the State, and call into being new 
forces for crippling industry by taxation, the fruits of 
which are their sustaining agencies. 

It will be discovered that all public works are sur- 
rounded by men who are known as political powers. 
The Erie canal has been managed for many years by 
a Ring, whose elements readily combined for public 
robbery. It controlled the conventions of both polit- 
ical organizations of the State. No candidate for a 
State office could disregard its influence, and its as- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 95 

sistance in conventions could only be purchased by- 
assurances of reward out of the public purse. Its in- 
terest in the management of State affairs was vital 
and direct, and for a long time, it formed the central 
authority to which every selfish influence gave alle- 
giance. 

The capitalist in any community is almost always 
a political power. He is connected with some cor- 
poration which holds in its purse the bread of laborers ; 
he presides over a bank which controls the commer- 
cial interests of its patrons, and can withhold or dis- 
tribute its favors ; he is president of a railroad whose 
earnings are under legislative control. His interests 
are interwoven with every industry in the community. 
If disposed to use his power, his servants are of his 
own choosing ; and if they fail to discover his will, 
from a hint, others are to be found to whom they 
surrender their places. Creating the aldermen of a 
small city by controlling the primaries, holding them 
to obedience by catering to their commercial necessi- 
ties, the chartered authority given to public function- 
aries enables the account to be balanced from the 
purse of the public. 

He may be ambitious. The majority of the wards 
of a city are under his control. It forms a stock in 
trade for exchange for something else. He wants 
railroad commissioners, suited to his ambitions, and 



g6 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

five or six wards are valuable in a political convention 
for a nominee for the office to which the appointment 
is given. He desires to raise the fare on his railroad, 
and exerts his influence to elect a legislator who will 
ask the repeal of the statutory restriction. 

The interest of those employed upon public im 
provements and their employers is identical. The 
removal of one may be the displacement of the other. 
The one gives bread and the other receives it. Their 
relations to politics are more intimate than that of 
the business man, for a change of policy may mean 
the stoppage of work. The laborer is employed by the 
contractor ; the contractor by the commissioners of 
canals ; the commissioners of canals receive their in- 
structions from the legislature. The laborer furnishes 
numbers to the primary, a little rioting and fraud ; 
the contractor directs the delegates at conventions ; 
the conventions select the commissioners ; and the 
commissioners in turn employ the contractors who re- 
ward the laborers. Where the party majority is 
assured, an election will not affect the arrangement. 
If the election of other commissioners occurs, it is 
only necessary to transform the laborers into mem- 
bers of the opposite party ; to let them attend other 
caucuses, and to put the contractors into subordinate 
positions not political, to preserve the character of the 
ring. The one thousand employees at the Custom 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 97 

House in New York city controlling the republican 
primaries, perform every function necessary to nom- 
inate their tickets, and when nominated, fifty-four 
thousand Republicans, ostracised by the disgusting 
scandals of the caucus, vote the men put in nomina- 
tion by the element whose practices drove them from 
the only place where their power could be efficiently 
employed for their own benefit* 

THE DESTRUCTION OF POLITICAL INTEGRITY. 

The effects resulting from the employment of the 
present system of political machinery upon public 
honesty have been examined. It remains to consider 
them in their relations to the political integrity of the 

* A statement of the number of beneficiaries of the govern- 
ment in New York city shows that there are 4,413 Tammany 
office-holders, 2,165 policemen, 500 firemen, trustees of schools, 
and 5,000 to 1 0,000 laborers hired by contractors doing city work, 
who are all under obligations to vote the Tammany ticket. 
Against this army of men, every one of whom is more or less 
an element of aggressive strength to Tammany Hall, the regu- 
lar Republican organization has been able to call for service, 
such as each man was able to render, from 900 men, night in- 
spectors, letter carriers, &c, in the Federal service, and 442 
holding the like small places in the city departments, making 
in all 1,342. Under the new order of things, the 900 Federal 
office-holders will not be permitted to take any part in politics in 
the future. 

7 



98 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

party organizations. The principles of Democracy or 
Conservatism may be applied to the government of 
every community, and belief in their justice constitutes 
a man a Democrat. They spring from a common root, 
and all harmonize with the one idea that the least gov- 
ernment consistent with public safety, will secure the 
greatest degree of public happiness. All other parties 
aim to ensure public safety by strengthening the arm 
of central authority. The fears and wants of one 
class, which seeks for an increase of comforts, whose 
enjoyment requires the fullest protection, find ex- 
pression in the sense of the Radical party ; while the 
fears and wants of the other, seeking the fullest 
liberty, are aroused by every invasion of it by the 
law. These underlying principles, universal in their 
operation upon the human mind, identify with cer- 
tainty the political character of every individual in the 
land — a character altered only by changes of circum- 
stances of individual life, which brings with them new 
wants and other fears. The method of elections which 
secures the most certain expression of the popular 
will, tends to attract the eyes of all to a contemplation 
of harmonizing principles, which when assuming the 
form of law will accomplish the results seeming most 
desirable to each individual. Is economy desir- 
able ? The plain road is in the application of 
those consistent principles which limiting the power 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 99 

of government limits as well its expense. Is equality 
desirable ? The avoidance of all legislation which 
makes a distinction of classes ; which tends to foster 
one industry at the expense of others ; and the estab- 
lishment of system of general legislation in the place 
of special enactments. A perfect system of elections 
would afford the expression of the wants and fears of 
each individual, upon every important subject, local 
or national ; and constant discussion would early dis- 
close the capacity of a few principles to satisfy his 
wants, as well as their entire harmony with each other 
in their tendency to fulfil the wish of a given class. 

Men are born equal. The mind of all is the 
same. The characteristics which mark the intellec- 
tual capacities of individuals are the same. Passion, 
affection, reason, intellect are the gifts of every being 
possessing the image of God, and these faculties form 
the world of mind, upon which principles act, with the 
same effect as upon individuals. The circumstances 
of every-day life rouse the passions, animosities and 
prejudices of individuals ; the circumstances surround- 
ing the heavy tread of national progress call forth the 
passions of nations which find expression in the 
tumult of wars. Principles are alike the foundation 
of human conduct and national action ; upholding the 
superstructure of law within which they move. The 
self-interest or common interest of all is the highest 



IOO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

conception of justice ; and the voluntary expression, 
by each individual of his own wants, afforded through 
the best instrumentalities, is the surest means of its 
attainment. Declared by the will of the majority, be- 
hind it stands the physical force needed to assert its 
dignity. Clothed with the power of law, it forms a 
resistless agency. The despot seizing the machinery 
of government, makes his own will the law, and forces 
it upon discontented or rebellious subjects. The Re- 
publican citizen represented in the law becomes his 
own constituency. 

Right and justice are the natural desires of the 
human mind ; and progress toward their attainment is 
the tendency of all mankind. The golden rule expresses 
the right in individual conduct ; obedience to the law 
expresses right in the sense of legal justice ; the doing 
of that which violates no moral obligation forms the 
conception of the moral law ; and self-interest is the 
prompting incentive in every instance. The govern- 
ment in which is imbedded the picture of every inter- 
est, representing the humble and the great, in colors 
exhibiting their real proportions, is the very embodi- 
ment of justice. 

Reason constantly searches for truth, and in every 
unbiased mind, it stands enthroned. No man, how- 
ever brutal, when two courses are open to him, prom- 
ising equal rewards, will fail to follow that which 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 01 

promises the least injury or the most good to his 
neighbor; and this disinterested situation expresses 
the relation which every citizen engaged in the 
ordinary pursuits of commerce sustains to his govern- 
ment. Unbiased, and unable to trace his own appar- 
ent interests in the intricate pathways which obscure 
them in their relations to millions, his only aim can 
be to discover right principles, whose widespread 
effects, may be beneficial to himself in common with 
his neighbor. 

There can be but one appeal to this vast disinter- 
ested class, outnumbering a thousand to one the 
agents who are direct beneficiaries of the govern- 
ment ; and that appeal must be the presentation of 
the principles of truth to influence the reason of the 
people. The man who will stop to consider an argu- 
ment addressed to prejudice is unworthy the name 
of an American citizen, for he endangers his own 
capacity to discover truth, and does himself the injury 
which he inflicts upon others. The man who would 
lead him astray by appealing to passion is a dema- 
gogue, and wide as the world is the rule that the 
man who employs dishonest arts to wield opinion is 
unworthy of the slightest trust. 

Unfortunately, no human system will permit the 
masses to assume the direct management of govern- 
ment. Representation is the only recourse which 



102 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

permits of Republican government within extended 
territories. If representation were perfect, and the 
desires of disinterested citizens were transmitted as 
the controlling agencies to the minds of their dele- 
gates, the Republic would present the perfection of 
human government. The right and truth sought by 
the people would be the goal of those, who, reflecting 
every just impulse of the human mind, are possessed 
of the highest intelligence required for investigation, 
and are free from the influence of ignorance and 
passion. 

Experience has shown no such happy picture. 
The responsibility of agents to the people in the con- 
duct of national affairs, so far as the implanting of 
principles in the working of the national government 
is concerned, is complete ; it is almost utterly lacking 
in everything else. The identity even of those prin- 
ciples is destroyed, and men of Conservative profes- 
sions are found battling for Radical policies, and the 
ordinary citizen is befogged in his efforts to distin- 
guish the political character of parties. 

The road to victory is no longer by an appeal to 
public reason. Before that bar, every dishonest in- 
fluence would fail. In the erection of machinery 
already invested with the authority of government, 
the few great interests fail not to discover that bribery 
and prejudice, one controlling the few and the other 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 103 

undermining the real principles of the many, are ef- 
ficient instrumentalities in overthrowing reason, and 
distorting the will of the nation. The few interests, 
capable of combination, and feeling the pressure of 
public expense, find in small conventions the ready 
means of replenishing their treasuries from the public 
purse, and attaining an undue preponderance, if not 
an absolute control, of all the functions of govern- 
ment, to the utter destruction, not only of the polit- 
ical integrity of individuals, but also the fidelity of 
parties. 

This powerful machinery intervening between the 
people and the government, assumes the nomination 
of all officials connected with national affairs, and 
their election whenever the nomination is an equiva- 
lent. In its secret chambers, charged with more 
authority than the combined masses of people pos- 
sess, the delegate loses his character as a repre- 
sentative, and cutting off all responsibility, assumes 
the garb of an individual. In the presence of every 
temptation which can be centralized by the enormous 
special interests affected by its action, the few men 
in the political convention, fall a ready prey to their 
influence. The dishonest demagogue is thrust for- 
ward, and the tool of his superiors in the convention, 
becomes the reckless deceiver of the people. The 
issues he presents, appeal not to reason, but to preju- 



104 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

dice. Catering to passions, varied in every locality, 
he reaches the goal of ambition, by promises without 
consistency, and professions which belie his whole 
character. Need we wonder that the confidence of 
the people in public rulers, in whose selection they 
feel they have borne an important part, is impaired ; 
and that political parties fail to represent, with abso- 
lute fidelity, the pure principles which establish their 
identity, and accord with the opposite tendencies of 
the human mind. 

The despot, invested with the authority of the law, 
decapitating the heads of his submissive subjects, 
presents no more appalling a picture than that ex- 
hibited by centralized special interests, controlling the 
small political conventions, by appealing to the un- 
worthy desires of their members by acts of bribery 
and the force of power, and wringing from them the 
right to assume the functions of government. Clothed 
with the authority of the government, the distribution 
of its resources only remains. Placing the bribe of 
special interest before every citizen ; undermining the 
grand principle which prompts the desire for the com- 
mon interest or the public good ; appealing to sectional 
prejudices destructive of a common nationality, the 
contest between forces, whose natural tendency is to 
discover and apply just principles, is transformed into 
a battle between elements, springing from the same 



IN THE UNITED STATES. IO5 

machinery, whose only purpose is the distribution of 
the spoils of the government. 

In such a contest political principles are nothing, 
the welfare of the citizen is nothing, the fidelity and 
integrity of parties are nothing. Relieved of respon- 
sibility, dependent not upon the public will, but the 
will of special interests whose power alone can crush 
him, the agent,, however honest, finds himself in the 
presence of influences which he cannot control, and 
the citizen feels that he is a freeman only in name. 

The intimate relation sustained by demagogism and 
patronage was exhibited in the contest in 1876 between 
the hard money and inflation wings of the Demo- 
cratic party. Hopeful of carrying Ohio and Indiana 
upon the issue which presented the prospect of an 
abundance of paper money as a balm for hard times, 
the Democrats in those States planted their standard 
firmly on that platform and seemed to speak the senti- 
ments of the West. Both of these States were evenly 
balanced ; the legislature in one of them contained a 
majority of Democrats ; the local offices were half- 
filled with officials appointed as members of that party ; 
and these elements were ready to forget principle upon 
slight provocation. Other States in the West, like 
Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Illinois, the masses 
of the party long unused to the taste of political power, 
remembered only their long-professed principles ; and 



106 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

their representation in the national convention, almost 
with unanimous voice, united with the East in the 
demand that the party should not prove recreant to a 
policy which had always been identified with its name. 
It was their voice which controlled in procuring the 
nomination of Tilden. 

ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY. 

The existence of congressional caucuses investing 
their participants with the power of limiting the choice 
of the people in the election of President to one of 
only two persons — a power far exceeding any which 
they were chosen to exercise under the Constitution, 
is a striking illustration of the incomplete character 
of our national system. Alone it nullified every pro- 
vision established by the founders of the government 
to secure the independence of the executive from 
legislative authority. By dividing itself by party lines 
into two caucuses, Congress assumed the privilege of 
naming the persons for the highest station in the Re- 
public, and the subsequent election by the people di- 
vested of every characteristic which distinguished it 
as a free expression of the public will, became the 
emptiest of farces. The electoral college, established 
to avoid such a contingency, had early proven a failure ; 
and the absence of other machinery for securing the 
expression of the popular voice, rendered necessary 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 107 

the assumption of the power of selection by some ac- 
tiveagency. An inbred prejudice, attributing to Jackson . 
a remark first uttered by Marcy, that " to the victors 
belonged the spoils of victory," has led to the univer- 
sal belief that its establishment as a principle in the 
distribution of patronage was the voluntary act of a 
single executive. On the contrary, the experience of 
the present and the history of the past combines in 
demonstrating that it was the result of an unwilling 
surrender of executive independence at the dictation 
of superior congressional power. When the road to 
influence lay not in the wisdom and excellence of 
men, but in the concentration and combination of their 
own personal influence, exerted in the manipulation of 
patronage, the thirst of members of a co-ordinate 
branch of government could not be satiated except by 
wringing from the executive the control of a part of 
his perquisites. The official patronage became less a 
reward for the fealty of the energetic citizen to the 
party colors than the perquisite of the few servants 
of government clothed with legislative authority. The 
Constitution, providing that in the event of a failure to 
elect by the electoral college, the choice should re- 
vert to the House of Representatives, presented the 
singular anomaly of Congress dictating nominations, 
to which submission by the people was the only alter- 
native avoiding the contingency that would send the 



108 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

election to the House. An attempt to present a third 
candidate, possessing strength sufficient to make a 
contest, would divide the electoral college and make 
a choice impossible. The servile acquiescence on the 
part of the people to this dictation of the caucus 
rendered possible what was mistakenly called " a choice 
by the people ; " and the public mind looking on with 
indifference during the selection of two candidates, 
for whom they were compelled to vote, burst out in 
indignant rage at the outrage threatened when the 
final choice was thrown in the House. 

The grasp upon the patronage of the executive, the 
appointing power of the government, has been retained 
until the present day, and ever has been the chief 
obstacle to reform in the civil service. The servants 
of the executive are alike the servants of the senator 
and the representative ; and so long as the policy of 
all is consistent, they can render to each master the 
same allegiance. The interest of all is the same. The 
postmaster is indebted to the representative ; the 
representative to the senator ; the senator to the exec- 
utive ; and the distance from the Post Office to the 
executive mansion is narrowed by the existence of an 
implied fidelity, ensured by the power of each superior 
over all of lesser station. 

The transfer of the nominating power from the con- 
gressional caucus to the national convention, served 



IN THE UNITED STATES. IO9 

only to aggravate the evil. The congressional session 
afforded opportunity for thoughtful consideration of 
the merits of candidates ; the convention, hasty and 
informal, was unsuited to its task. No rule existed 
which excluded the congressman from its doors, and 
where modesty forbade his presence, he could be 
represented by his satellites. 

The vast special interests excluded from the con- 
gressional caucus or compelled to resort to direct 
bribery to further their ends, now found a body in 
which they could participate, without objection; and 
their influence was added to the grand political com- 
bination. A system of indirect bribery was estab- 
lished, by which value was exchanged for value ; and 
the sale of influence was divested of those characteris- 
tics which rendered it most repugnant to honor. 

In view of these facts it is evident that no system 
of competitive examination to ascertain the qualifica- 
tions of subordinate officials could be established. 
Such a method, if anything, could only mean the reten- 
tion of office during the period of competency or during 
the period of life of the official. A knowledge of Grecian 
mythology is hardly essential to the performance of the 
duties of a government clerkship, but its possession 
will prove an insurmountable obstacle to the eye of the 
politician when it is substituted in the place of his will 
as the controlling agency procuring an appointment. 



IIO THE ELECTIVE FRANXHTSE 

When personal interest in the control of appoint- 
ments no longer exists and can no longer be enforced ; 
when caucuses and conventions, in which personal 
service may be effectively rendered by subordinates 
to superiors, are abolished, an extra constitutional 
board may make, without objection, the appointments 
confided by the law in the executive. Until then, the 
pleasure of those powers whose interests are affected 
by every appointment, will prevail ; and appointments 
will be the gift, not alone to political, but personal 
service. 

The recent order of the president directing his sub- 
ordinates to abstain from participating in the man- 
agement of political machinery, opens a question of 
greatest significance to the people. It indicates that 
the president rightly conceives the nature of the 
disease which has debauched the civil service, and his 
assurances, together with important circumstances 
attending his installation into the high office of ex- 
ecutive, indicate the good faith of his efforts. The 
magnitude of the undertaking and the incomplete 
sphere of his own influence, are quite sufficient 
to arouse the forebodings of every patriot. It seems 
a difficult task to impress upon the public officer 
that his elevation was not in some way a reward 
for political service ; and that his retention does 
not depend upon redoubling his energies in the same 



IN THE UNITED STATES. Ill 

direction. Whatever may be the competency of 
the agents in the Custom House for the duties they 
undertake to perform, they are conscious of their 
capacity to manipulate a primary or to run a political 
convention ; and it is not unnatural that they hold to 
their hearts the consoling conviction that the merit 
most pleasing to their superior is that which tends 
most to his benefit. The honest performance of the 
duties of office are hardly consistent with the dishonest 
arts of the politician nor are the delicate trusts of a 
clerical station appropriate to the rough habits of reck- 
less and burly political workers. The years during 
which these qualities have been deemed compatible, 
may measure the depth of our political degradation, 
while they afford no pleasant commentary upon the 
magnitude of the task of reform. 

Scarcely had the order been issued before symptoms 
of the coming storm began to appear. The Southern 
policy, forced by the embittered state of the public 
mind, furnished the rallying cry of the demagogues, 
whose political existence was attacked in every quarter. 
A policy, whose condemnation gave a falsehood to 
their every utterance could not be carried into effect 
without destroying their consistency ; and the patron- 
age upon which depended their personal influence, 
was stricken from their hands by the order which 
rendered it valueless. The contest between the presi- 



112 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

dent representing the honest instincts of the people, 
and the demagogues representing their own per- 
sonal interests, involving the question whether offi- 
cials shall perform public or a private duty, was one 
well calculated to array upon opposite sides the ele- 
ments of honesty and its foes ; while the circum- 
stances are such as to permit by each the use of ap- 
propriate weapons. The denunciation of the Southern 
policy appealing to the prejudices of the people is 
employed to preserve personal power, and to continue 
in existence the bane of the public service ; while the 
common sense and candor of the masses will be the 
support of the executive, in his efforts to smother 
color and sectional antagonisms beneath issues in- 
volving the purity of the civil service. 

The order, if carried into full execution, can only 
affect executive appointees. It will not touch the 
appointees of States, nor the monopolied interests now 
invested with political authority. Divesting himself 
by the nature of the order of all support from those 
dependent upon his favor, the president has engaged 
in a contest with all the personal elements in his 
party ; and within the party the battle must be fought. 
The people can render no assistance, for no means are 
afforded for the expression of their will, in a contest 
between antagonistic factions of the same party ; and 
the advantage of power to his opponents is coupled 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 113 

with that of position. The battle ground is of their 
own choosing and the contest must be fought in the 
political conventions. The union of •the political rob- 
bers of the South and the demagogues of the North 
will not fail to identify the character of the struggle, 
and the qualities of its participants. The Iowa Con- 
vention has spoken, Maine will follow, and the natural 
expectation would be that in those States where the 
Republicans have a majority, and possess the control 
of local patronage, conventions will speak in vigorous 
denunciation of the policy, while in the few intelligent 
commonwealths where the reins of power are in other 
hands, the real voice of the rank and tile of the organ- 
ization will be heard with equal clearness. 

The powers behind the throne in Pennsylvania and 
other Republican States are not to be measured by 
the extent of the office-holding element alone, though 
most of that class are under obligation for their ap- 
pointments to the senator. Doubtless, in a majority 
of instances, they will array their fortunes with his. 
The capitalists also have interests and stake, and will 
render service to their natural protectors. The local 
and State patronage, connected intimately with the 
powers which have controlled that of the nation, will 
also be arrayed against the policy of the President. 

Fairly presented to the people there could be no 
doubt as to the result of the contest. Fought out in 



I 14 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

political conventions or in the legislative bodies the 
influence of the president will gain no easy victory 
over the combined powers which he cannot touch, and 
which will solidly be arrayed against him. The South- 
ern policy will be the handle of the politicians, and 
upon that they will boldly express themselves, and 
the policy which seeks the purification of the civil 
service will represent their secret, yet real grievance, 
for its enforcement means the destruction of their 
power. 

A RETROSPECT. 

It will be our endeavor in this chapter to present 
in concise and comprehensive form the points we have 
attempted to establish, and, in some degree, to ex- 
plain. It has been discovered, first, that an analysis 
of the effects of the ballot, as employed at elections, 
discloses that they are confined to comparatively 
limited boundaries ; second, that all questions subor- 
dinated at elections are necessarily remitted to the 
primaries and conventions, the growths not of law but 
of convenience ; third, that the informality of the 
structure of political machinery enables a few individ- 
uals to seize upon the government and the purse of 
the people and to devote them to the establishment of 
a personal power, without responsibility, a power which 
public sentiment, however strong, representing a 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 115 

majority however large, cannot resist at elections ; 
fourth, that the exercise of this personal power is the 
chief agency of political corruption and public ex- 
travagance. 

Our government has substantially as many parts 
as there are political divisions. It is desirable that 
the public attention in the election of officials shall be 
bestowed upon the question of fitness of candidates, 
and the matters relating to the management of the 
affairs of each division. Town offices and issues 
should be considered by corporate members of towns ; 
city matters by voters in cities ; county affairs in 
county elections, and State and national concerns in 
elections held for officials to attend to the duties of 
those functions. If these separate concerns are not 
separately considered, elections within them are ex- 
pensive farces, having no bearing upon the purposes 
for which they are held. The officials elected with 
propriety might be all appointed by the president. 
Local self-government is meaningless unless our 
political system permits of the consideration by the 
people, of one class of concerns, in which a com- 
munity is interested, entirely disconnected from every 
other. It has been discovered that this is not the 
case ; that the issues attracting the largest degree of 
interest are those connected with the movements of 
the national government ; that at each election these 



Il6 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

alone are combined and present the alternative of ap- 
proval or disapproval of the policy of the national 
administration ; and that a political force known by 
the name of a party presents the affirmative, and 
another force of the same character presents the 
negative of the main issue. The fact that questions 
at one election permit only of an affirmative and a 
negative side, whether in a country debating club or 
in a community of millions, forces a concentration 
which is almost certain to ensure for one party a 
majority. The prevailing party, even in States 
where pluralities may elect, seldom has less than a 
majority of votes. As votes are cast to control the 
authority of the government, and as no motive to impel 
attendance at elections would exist if the hope of 
securing that authority did not prevail, political 
parties in the nation are necessarily nearly equal ; and 
policies made are always such as to promise the at- 
tainment of their end as an inducement to the masses 
to rally to their support. The equality of strength in 
the nation upon national issues makes a diversity of 
strength in every State and lesser locality ; and poli- 
tical forces equal in the nation at large are unequal 
in every lesser community. If national issues could 
be hidden from view, and attention exclusively be- 
stowed upon local or State questions and candidates, 
such elections would show the same characteristics as 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 11/ 

national, viz., nearly equal divisions upon local or 
State policies. As it is, whether held separately or 
together, the divisions at all elections indicate the con- 
centration of attention upon the same class of ques- 
tions, which are represented by the only political 
organizations existing by compulsion, the leading 
national parties. Other organizations are voluntary ; 
and the relation of every citizen to the leading parties, 
precludes the possibility of a permanent association, 
independent of parties, which is constantly threaten- 
ing the supremacy of his national views. As the ex- 
istence of these inequalities in communities, renders 
useless organizations of a permanent nature aiming to 
call attention only to local issues, the only possible 
purpose which can influence minorities to participate, 
is to exhibit their fidelity to partisan colors and to 
give such elections a national significance. 

The one and only act of a citizen in his relation to 
government is performed when he votes. If voting 
were not permitted, the government would be trans- 
formed into despotism. The extent of the influence of 
the ballot indicates the extent of popular government, 
and where it fails to touch, either by reason of express 
law or circumstances which control its expression — 
for in effect both are the same — a despotism of some 
kind exists. The nature of that despotism has been 
the subject of our inquiry. All issues not affected, in 



Il8 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 

a material sense, by the exercise of his franchise are 
remitted by the citizen to some other authority. If 
the people participate in their solution at all, it must 
be at some point in the process of election. 

An oral expression of sentiment may exert amoral 
influence, but it has no direct effect until it is pictured 
on the print of a ballot. The only other portion of 
the process of election is that which secures the nomi- 
nation of candidates. All issues in fact, not nominal, 
which are not decided at elections, if controlled at all 
by the public will, must be influenced through the 
machinery of political parties. 

The will of the people is the final result of a com- 
promise of all individual interests, and the law and 
government will secure its concentrated expression, if 
no obstacles intervene to defeat that end. Its ex- 
pression so far as the objects to which it can be de- 
voted are concerned, is attained by a direct vote at 
elections. As to other objects, it must have recourse 
to representation. The fact that adequate expression 
is not ensured by our present system of elections has 
been demonstrated. The functions, then, which the 
law requires to be performed are accomplished by rep- 
resentatives. The honesty of all candidates, national 
as well as local, the affairs of States, counties, towns 
and cities, are all either controlled through political 
machinery by the people ; or else left to the irrespon- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. II9 

sible will of the legislator. Representation is or is 
not real, as the term implies, just in proportion as 
responsibility is or is not associated with it. There 
can be no representation if the will of the person rep- 
resented does not control his agent ; and there can 
be no control if the vital act of the agent is secretly- 
performed. With the act obscured, reward or punish- 
ment cannot follow its performance. Where the act 
of the delegate is secret, it is his will as distinguished 
from the will of his constituency that is acting, with- 
out external restraint ; and conventions which permit 
of a secret ballot, at that point cut off all responsibil- 
ity to the people. No longer do their members pos- 
sess the qualities of representatives. They have vol- 
untarily cut the only chord which ties them to their 
constituency ; and divested themselves of that by 
which their obedience and the enforcement of its will 
could be compelled. They become the easy prey of 
any influence which requires secrecy in the further- 
ence cf its designs. Where secrecy of action is per- 
mitted, caucuses have no functions of value to per- 
form, for its attendants form the only constituency of 
conventions. Only when an open ballot in conven- 
tions compels the reflection of so much of the people's 
will as may find expression in the caucus, do we reach 
the inquiry as to the extent of its influence. The in 
formality of the primary, which gives immunity and 



120 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

extends an invitation to every unlawful and selfish in- 
fluence, which have associated the name of caucus 
with all that is disreputable, has been inquired into 
with some particularity. The effects of this infor- 
mality in driving respectable people away, and in de- 
stroying the influence of those having the hardihood 
to attend, require no further elucidation. 

Yet the functions of these institutions render them 
the instruments which accomplish the very thing upon 
which honest government depends. Political beliefs 
and principles have reference to competent govern- 
ment in one sense, but individual honesty, is incapable 
of becoming a political issue. A political issue is the 
concentrated expression or embodiment of the beliefs 
of many. Honesty is a moral characteristic of indi- 
viduals, represented as largely in one party as another 
The selection of the candidate is the selection of every 
quality of mind or character which goes to form his 
nature ; and this selection is made by political ma- 
chinery. The influences which control it will select 
an agent with qualities congenial to their own. Where 
a nomination is equivalent to an election, as it is in 
every community not equally balanced politically, the 
government is already in the hands of these agencies 
which control the political machinery of the leading 
organization. Small though they may be in honest 
numbers, their bribes, trickery, effrontery, and fraud, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 121 

give them a hold upon the machinery of the law ; and 
its vast mechanism moves forward to the accomplish- 
ment of their selfish and corrupt designs. 

If this presentation does not demonstrate its own 
truthfulness, a comprehensive knowledge of the as- 
sociations of all the caucuses and conventions in the 
country, is not necessary. Its harmony with the trans- 
actions of government is sufficient ; and those trans- 
actions are facts of which the humblest can take cogni- 
zance. Although they involve large expenditures of 
money, subsides to railroads have been voted, with 
the approval of Democrats and Republicans ; although 
the requirement that public appointees shall attend 
to the functions of their offices, and leave politics 
alone, is confessedly right and admitted to be so by 
every unbiased mind, yet the executive is arousing a 
storm among his political supporters in attempting 
the enforcement of this simple order. Left to indi- 
vidual caprice principles have little weight. They are 
made effective only by imbedding them in the law. 
The monopolied interests, whether of office-holders 
or corporations, by their influence in controlling polit- 
ical machinery through which alone an individual can 
step into power, are sufficient to defeat an honest 
magistrate, however high his station, in any honest 
design which threatens their interests. Where parties 
divide within themselves, as is the case wherever a 



122 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

dishonest appropriation of public money or land is 
made, party responsibility is sacrificed ; and individual 
responsibility forms the only restraint. The corrupt 
practices of the present day, the wicked legislation of 
a private nature in Congress and in the States, may 
answer whether this responsibility is felt to the 
people, or to the recipients of the gifts bestowed. 
If to the latter, then the people holding parties to ac- 
countability, have lost their control of their represent- 
atives in all that relates to their ability to enforce 
personal honesty, by the lack of a system to ensure 
personal or individual responsibility. 

We have discovered, then, that personal power 
exists without personal responsibility. Individuals by 
the use of appropriate means secure the control of the 
machinery of party. Controlling it, they are foisted 
into political power by the fact of a partisan majority 
already existing, and the force of a popular current 
attracted to issues which obscure the character and 
designs of the candidates. Once in possession of the 
government, with the law to assist in seizing upon its 
boundless resources, the capacity to increase the per- 
sonal power is limited only by the taxable property 
of the people. Bestowed upon middlemen, whether 
contractor or senator, the unity of interest and the 
appreciation of the gift, are readily felt, and the grate- 
ful impulses of higher functionaries are generated in 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



the minds of office-holders and laborers, who alike be- 
come the participants in the bounty of common bene 
factors. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 25 



BOOK III. 

SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 
MACHINERY OF ELECTION. 

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

" The mode of appointment of the chief magistrate 
of the United States," says the Federalist, "is almost 
the only part of the system, of any consequence, 
which has escaped without censure or which has re- 
ceived the slightest mark of approbation from its oppo- 
nents. The most plausible of these, who has ap- 
peared in print, has even deigned to admit that the 
election of president is pretty well guarded. Ex- 
perience has sadly demonstrated how mistaken was 
the view of the provisions relating to this subject. In 
the election of third president, the will of the people 
was almost frustrated by the arts of political intrigue. 
The patriotism of Hamilton, rising above the partisan- 
ship of his own political associates, saved the country 
from the presidency of Burr. In 1824, a minority can- 
didate was installed in the station of chief executive 
through its instrumentality ; and in 1876 the strongest 
appeal to the conservative instincts of the people suf- 
ficed to save it from the terrors of intestine revolu- 



126 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

tion. How must these incidents recall the sentiments 
of Benton, given as a last warning to posterity ! 

" I have seen," said the Missouri statesman, " the 
capacity of the people tried at many points, and always 
found equal to the demands of the occasion. Two 
other trials, now going on, remain to be decided to 
settle the question of that capacity, i. The election 
of president ! and whether that election is to be gov- 
erned by the virtue and intelligence of the people, or 
to become the spoil of intrigue or corruption. 2. The 
sentiment of political nationality ! and whether it is 
to remain co-extensive with the Union, leading to har- 
mony and fraternity ; or divide into sectionalism, end- 
ing in hate, alienation, separation and civil war. 
An irresponsible body (chiefly self-constituted and 
mainly dominated by professional office-seekers and 
office-holders) have usurped the election of president 
(for the nomination is the election so far as the party 
is concerned), and always making it with a view to 
their own profit in the monopoly of office and plunder. 
******** Confederate Republics are short- 
lived — the shortest in the whole family of govern- 
ments. Two diseases beset them — the corrupt elec- 
tion of chief magistrate when elective ; sectional con- 
tention when interest or ambition are at issue. Our 
confederacy is now laboring under both diseases ; and 
the body of the people, now as always honest and 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



127 



patriotic in design, remain unconscious of the danger, 
and even become instruments in the hands of their 
destroyers." * 

A glance at the debates of the conventions which 
adopted the Constitution, will disclose the fact that 
the chief inducement leading to the establishment of 
the electoral system was that it gave the South the 
proportional representation permitted in the House 
of Representatives. The leading objection to a pop- 
ular plan arose from the view that negroes would be 
unrepresented, and the States of the South would 
have their influence reduced in proportion. Though 
seldom referred to in the convention, the institution 
of slavery seems to have been the inspiration of this 
portion of the system. The rights of the States, as 
opposed to the view of a common nationality, were 
chiefly urged in their relation to this interest of human 
property. Strange, it is, that the very system estab- 
lished to secure the united expression of the voice of 
the States rendered possible the success of a party, 
whose presence proved the destruction of the evil. 
The concentration of the united voice of the North 
alone sufficed to secure the election of Lincoln by 
a vote of 180 out of 303 in the Electoral College; 
while the popular vote was nearly a million against 
him. The House of Representatives, representing 
* Benton's Thirty Years' View, vol. ii. p. 787. 



128 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

more closely the choice of the people, would have 
been opposed to the administration, if any effort 
had been made to interfere with slavery ; and this 
fact more than any other contributes to exhibit the 
causelessness of the rebellion. The withdrawal of 
Southern representatives alone gave the Republicans 
a majority in either branch of Congress. 

On several occasions the proposition to amend the 
Constitution in such a manner as to secure to the peo- 
ple the nomination as well as the election of candi- 
dates for president has been before Congress. In 1 824 
four candidates were presented to the people. Adams, 
Jackson, Clay and Crawford, the two last named being 
nominated by a congressional caucus which submitted 
its differences to be decided by the people. At the 
election which followed the popular vote cast for Jack- 
son was 155,872 ; for Adams, 105,321 ; for Clay, 46,587 ; 
for Crawford, 44,282. The electoral vote for Jackson 
was 99, Adams 84, Crawford 41, Clay 37, Mr. Adams, 
though not receiving even a plurality of the popular 
or electoral vote, was chosen president by the House 
of Representatives. 

The event created much excitement throughout the 
country. In Congress an amendment to the Constitu- 
tion was introduced by a committee consisting of Mr. 
Benton, Mr. Mason, Mr. Van Buren, Mr. Hugh L. 
White, Mr. Findlay, Mr. Dickenson, Mr. Holmes, Mr. 



IX THE UNITED STATES. 12 9 

Hayne and Mr. Richard M. Johnson. Without quoting 
the provisions of the amendment, we will give Mr. Ben- 
ton's statement of them. " The detail of the plan is to 
divide the States into districts ; the people to vote 
direct in each district for the candidate they prefer ; 
the candidate having the highest vote for president to 
receive the vote of the district for such office and to 
count one. If any candidate receives a majority of 
the whole number of districts, such person to be elect- 
ed ; if no one receives such majority, the election to 
be held over again between the two highest." The 
remainder of its provisions relate to possible, though 
extremely remote contingencies, and to the canvassing 
of the votes and the declaration of the result. In 
January, 1835, a committee of the House of Repre- 
sentatives was appointed to consider the subject, and 
Mr. Gilmer, a member of the committee, reported an 
amendment substantially like that of Mr. Benton. 
The chief difference was that the results were to be 
canvassed by States instead of districts, and the can- 
didate receiving the largest number of votes in a 
State was to be entitled to its electoral vote. 

We quote from the debates of Congress to ascertain 
the purpose of these amendments. " Mr. Benton," it 
is stated, "proceeded to state the object and principle 
of his amendment, which was to dispense with all in- 
termediate bodies in the election of president and vice 
9 



I3O THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

president and to keep the election wholly in the hands 
of the people ; and to do this by giving them a direct 
vote for the man of the choice, and holding a second 
election between the two highest in the event of a 
failure in the first election to give a majority to any 
one. This was to do away with the machinery of all 
intermediate bodies to guide, control or defeat the 
popular choice ; whether a Congress caucus or a 
national convention, to dictate the selection of candi- 
dates, or a body of electors to receive and deliver their 
votes; or a House of Representatives to sanction or 
frustrate their choice. 

Mr. Benton spoke warmly and decidedly in favor of 
the principle of his proposition, assuming it as a funda- 
mental truth to which there was no exception, that 
liberty would be ruined by providing any kind of sub- 
stitute for popular election ; asserting that all elections 
would degenerate into fraud and violence, if any inter- 
mediate body was established between the voters and 
the objects of their choice and placed in a condition to 
be able to control, betray or defeat that choice. The 
fundamental truth he supported upon arguments, drawn 
from the philosophy of government and the nature of 
man, and illustrated by examples taken from the history 
of all elective governments which had ever existed. He 
showed it was the law of the few to disregard the will 
of the many when they got power into their hands, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 131 

and that liberty had been destroyed wherever inter- 
mediate bodies obtained the direction of the popular 
will." 

" At present he said that the will of the people was 
liable to be frustrated in the election of their chief 
officers (and that at no less than three stages of the 
canvass) by the intervention of small bodies of men 
between themselves and the object of their choice 
First, at the beginning of the process, in the nomina- 
tion or selection of candidates. A -Congress caucus 
formerly and a national convention now, govern and 
control that nomination ; and never fail when they 
choose, to find pretexts for substituting their own will 
for that of the people. Then a body of electors to 
receive and hold the electoral votes, and who, it can- 
not be doubted, will soon be expert enough to find 
reasons for a similar substitution. Then the House 
of Representatives may come in at the conclusion and 
do . as they have done heretofore and set the will of 
the people at absolute defiance." 

The main provisions of the plan of Mr. Morton, 

which was introduced in the Senate in May, 1874, are 

as follows : — 

I. The president and vice-president shall be elected 
by the direct vote of the people in the manner follow- 
ing : Each State shall be divided into districts, equal 
in number to the number of representatives to which 
the State may be entitled in the Congress, to be com- 



132 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

posed of contiguous territory, and to be as nearly 
equal in population as may be ; and the person having 
the highest number of votes in each district for presi- 
dent shall receive the vote of that district which shall 
count one presidential vote. 

II. The person having the highest number of votes 
for president in a State shall receive two presidential 
votes from the State at large. 

III. The person having the highest number of 
presidential votes in the United States shall be presi- 
dent. 

Another plan has received some attention and is 
worthy of full consideration. It is known as the 
" Buckalew plan/' and aims to secure minority repre- 
sentation in the election of president. This plan was 
introduced in the House of Representatives by Mr. 
Maish, of Pennsylvania, on February 7th, 1877. The 
amendment provides for a direct vote by the people 
for president and vice president ; it retains electoral 
votes as at present, while dispensing with electors 
and electoral colleges, and it assigns to candidates 
electoral votes from each State in proportion to popu- 
lar votes received by them therein. Its advantages 
are very ably set forth by Mr. Buckalew in the January 
1877 North American Review. He claims that it 
would almost extinguish the chances of a disputed 
election by causing the electoral vote to be very nearly 
a reflex of the popular vote, by confining the effect 
of fraud and other sinister influences within narrow 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 133 

limits,. and by withdrawing the compact, undivided 
power of any one State from the contest ; that it would 
render almost impossible the election of a minority 
candidate, and in many cases, would prevent a plurality 
candidate from receiving an unj ust electoral vote ; and 
that it would greatly discourage and prevent unfair- 
ness and fraud in elections, by excluding the motives 
which produce them. _ Assuming a ratio of thirty 
thousand for an electoral vote, a fraudulent vote of ten 
thousand would mean one-third of one electoral vote. 
The plans proposed by Mr. Benton and Mr. Gilmer 
were discussed in Congress from 1824 until 1835, but 
no decision was reached. The recent presidential con- 
test has aroused new interest in the matter, and Mr. 
Morton and Mr. Buckalew's systems will doubtless re- 
ceive due consideration in Congress. 

THE PLANS CONSIDERED. 

The aim both of the plan of Mr. Morton and that 
of Mr. Buckalew is to correctly photograph the strength 
of each political party in every locality throughout the 
country. No material difference would appear in the 
results of elections if the plan of either were applied. 
Mr. Buckalew's amendment would serve to show the 
inequalities of party strength within the respective 
States in exact proportions, while that of Mr. Morton 
would exhibit them in a form less definite. The sys- 



134 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

tern proposed by Mr. Benton has a deeper aim, divulged 
by its construction and the arguments used by its in- 
ventor. He sought to avoid the necessity of the. in- 
tervention of any intermediate bodies in the election 
of president. That end, we fear, would not be attain- 
ed by the adoption of his system. 

Each tends to avoid complications which, from time 
to time, have threatened the safety of the union ; but 
none strike at the vital questions presented in these 
pages. The issues which our present system of elec- 
tions prevents the people from deciding, are still in the 
background. With reference to Mr. Buckalew's plan, it 
may. be remarked that so long as a majority of one is 
as useful and as powerful in every elective body, as 
a majority of a million, it matters little how large the 
representation of the minority may be ; and the intro- 
duction of a system, revolutionizing our present 
methods can hardly present advantages counterbal- 
ancing its tendency to intensify partisan feeling already 
too deep for the nation's good. 

If what has been written is not sufficient to convince 
that the plan of Mr. Benton will not secure the aim it 
seeks, examples taken from the experience of the na- 
tion are at hand. Under it, the possibility exists of 
the selection of two candidates of the same political 
views at the first election ; and such a condition would 
work the virtual disfranchisement of the opposite 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 35 

party at the second election. With Blaine, Conkling, 
Morton and Bristow to divide the strength of Republi- 
cans, and only Tilden and Hendricks to divide the 
votes of Democrats, the probability would be that the 
second election would be held to decide between the 
two last named. If efforts were made to combine by 
one side, that course would be followed by the other ; 
and hence the final decision would be had at the first 
election, and concentration would be ensured by the 
methods and agencies now in vogue, whose existence 
Mr. Benton deplores. 

The partisan sense will find an expression unless it 
can be eliminated from controversy by the establish- 
ment of a system which permits of the subordination 
of partisan feeling, without endangering the final suc- 
cess of the party. That feeling is inbred in the habits 
and prejudices of the people ; and its existence is the 
only explanation of the power of political conventions — 
a power ever increasing with the numbers it assumes 
to represent. By the few voters in a small district, 
Seelye could be elected to Congress ; but for president 
O'Conor, representing the faith of the Democracy, 
opposed to its life-long opponent, Mr. Greeley, could 
rally to his standard only a corporal's guard of popular 
support. In the year the system of Mr. Benton was 
proposed an election was held which illustrated the 
force of our views. Mr. Adams was a candidate rep- 



I36 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

resenting the wing of the Federal party fast sinking 
from the field of politics. Mr. Clay represented the 
views of its natural successor, the growing organization 
of the Whigs. Both represented the same Radical 
shade of opinion. Though party lines were never so illy 
defined, and the people were experiencing the pleasure 
of the first exercise of the franchise in the election of 
president, yet Mr. Adams received no votes of conse- 
quence inStates where Clay was predominant ; nor did 
the latter receive any considerable number in States 
in which Mr. Adams was one of the leading candidates. 
In Alabama, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachu- 
setts, Mississippi, New Hampshire,, New Jersey and 
Rhode Island, Clay received only 11 78 votes to nearly 
100,000 cast for Adams. In Indiana and Illinois 
alone was a division in the party permitted where it 
endangered the success of their common cause. 

The same characteristic is illustrated in the votes 
for Jackson and Crawford. Where Jackson ran with 
the hope of success, those who personally preferred 
Crawford sacrificed their opinions of the individual 
and sustained the party standard. The election of 
i860 exhibited the same features. In the great States 
of Ohio and Illinois, Breckenridge received a vote 
reaching scarcely one-twentieth of that cast for Doug- 
las. In New York a fusion ticket was run ; while in 
Pennsylvania, where the supporters of Douglas far 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 3/ 

outnumbered those of his Democratic competitor, the 
fear of partisan defeat constrained his supporters to 
swell the vote of a fusion ticket to 178,000, while their 
own favorite received but 16,000. In the South, where 
the fear of Republican success did not exist, the vote 
for Douglas was about one-third of that for Brecken- 
ridge, especially in those States where the combined 
strength of Douglas and Bell was not needed to defeat 
the Kentucky candidate. 

In the election of 1824, the historian of New York 
informs us that in the Legislature, after a compromise 
between the supporters of Adams and Clay, "the 
ticket thus formed was nominated by the assembly, 
but upon joint ballot of the two Houses, in consequence 
of three blank votes, so nearly were the parties divided, 
only thirty-two of the thirty-six electors were declared 
duly chosen. Upon a second ballot four of the Craw- 
ford men were elected. If Crawford had carried New 
York instead of Adams, the electoral vote would have 
been Jackson 99, Crawford 67, Adams 58, and Clay 37. 
The second election under Benton's or Gilmer's system 
would have been held between the two candidates rep- 
resenting the same administrative policy, while those of 
more divergent views would have found little in the 
policy of either to lead them to participate. If the 
vote of Pennsylvania had been cast for Clay instead 
of Jackson, the second contest would have been 



I38 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

between Adams and Clay, together representing 150,- 
000 of the popalar vote, while their opponents had 
received over 200,000 votes." * 

Only in the State of North Carolina was the contest 
limited to two candidates of Democratic antecedents ; 
and the explanation is found in the figures of the 
election of 1832, where the supporters of Crawford 
and Jackson cast 24,862 votes to only 4563 for the Whig 
candidate. It may not be unworthy of remark that 
the four Crawford electors, chosen by the support of 
Adams' friends in New York, made the former, instead 
of Clay, one of the three candidates presented to the 
House of Representatives, and thereby permitted the 
concentration of the vote of Whig representatives 
upon Adams, who was elected. If Clay had received 
them, it is very probable that he would have been 
chosen president. In view of the fact that his party 
predilections and sentiments dictated the support of 
Mr. Adams by Mr. Clay, we are at a loss to explain the 
utterance of senator Morton, who puts in parenthesis 
that he believes Mr. Clay to have been a pure man 
" nevertheless." " The election was thrown in the 
House," says Mr. Morton, in one of his recent articles, 
" and there Mr. Clay voted for Mr. Adams, used his in- 
fluence for him, and afterwards became his secretary of 
State. This created an impression from which Mr. 
* Political History of New York. Vol. II. page 177. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 139 

Clay never recovered. I have never believed there 
was a bargain in the case, but it presented a strong 
temptation and the opportunity." 

It is provided in the plan of Mr. Morton that the 
person having the highest number of presidential 
votes shall be president. The fact that this provision 
violates the rule which requires the concurrent voice 
of a majority, as distinguished from a plurality, to 
elect, is more an objection to the theory of the system 
than one of a practical character. The theory of 
Republics is that each shall submit his own will to 
that of the majority. It has been well denominated 
the vital principle of Republics. A majority of 
citizens, equal in political privileges, is equivalent to 
the power of dictation possessed by the larger of two 
forces, comprising men of equal physical capacity, 
upon the battle-field. It is the peaceful arbiter of 
all questions which otherwise might be submitted to 
the chances of war. Experience, however, has de- 
monstrated that the natural tendency of the people, 
exercising the privilege of the franchise, is to central- 
ize all their strength upon the strongest candidates ; 
and notwithstanding the fact that the electoral col- 
lege secures a separate expression of the local sen- 
timent of each State and provides that the three can- 
didates having the largest votes shall be sent to the 
House of Representatives, an examination of the re- 



I4O ' THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

turns of every presidential election, except the first 
one, in which the popular sense was taken, discloses 
that the votes for the two leading candidates are from 
ten to fifty times more than that cast for third. The 
exceptional period, extending from 1856 to i860, when 
a new and sectional party was forming, based upon 
the issue of slavery, is not taken into view, as an issue 
of that temporary character can hardly arise again. 

The senator is unquestionably correct in declaring 
that, "Experience has shown us that there is more 
safety in a large electoral body than in a small one ; " 
but if the purpose was as he declared, " to brush away 
rubbish " and " bring the election of president to the 
people and let every man vote for the candidate of his 
choice," its efficacy may be safely challenged. The 
only possible effect of his system will be to transfer 
the popular vote now cast for electors in each district 
to the candidate for president, for whom they are 
chosen to vote, and Conventions would be necessary to 
select the candidate for the people as they now are to 
dictate to the electoral college. These agencies are 
the " rubbish " which it is evidently intended to 
"brush away" by letting " every man vote for the 
candidate of his choice." In 1872 the unquestioned 
preference of the mass of the Democrats was Mr. 
O Conor, and not Mr. Greeley ; but under our system 
a vote for that gentleman was practically a vote for 



IN THE UNITED STATES. I4I 

the candidate of the opposing party. Up to this 
time, the votes of the people have not been misrepre- 
sented by the electoral college, and when a citizen 
chooses to nullify the effect of his ballot by voting for 
" the candidate of his choice," no one will deny his 
right of doing so. The difficulty is that our present 
system so surrounds him with circumstances which 
he cannot control, that he is compelled to follow the 
dictation of leaders in order to give the slightest effect 
to his ballot. 

THE TRUE REMEDY. 

The correct representation of the partisan sense of 
the people is certainly to be desired. In so far as 
the action of general principles put in operation by 
the central government affects individuals within the 
several States, party and State representation should 
be accorded in its respective branches. The particu- 
lar influence of a State in a presidential election de-" 
pends more upon its power to name the candidate 
than its influence in electing him. With the power 
of selection in the electoral college the representa- 
tion of the respective States would be of great im- 
portance to them ; but with the departure of that 
power, representation of States becomes more im- 
portant at the point where it is now lodged, viz. : in 



I42" THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

the national conventions of the leading parties. It is 
not the large number of the electoral votes of a State 
that gives it importance in a presidential contest, but 
the uncertainty of its balance. If Pennsylvania was as 
certainly Republican as Vermont, her twenty odd elec- 
toral votes would not prove a subject of as much soli- 
citude as the three uncertain votes of Colorado or 
Florida. The equal division of public sentiment within 
a State, and the number of its representatives in the 
national conventions, therefore, constitute its chief 
claim for influence over executive appointments and 
policy, and even over the executive himself. The 
number of States named as doubtful in any pres- 
idential contest is small, but in view of their uncer- 
tainty the quota of their electoral votes becomes im- 
portant. To secure them a party will at times forget 
its fundamental principles, and the inflation theories 
set up by the Democrats in Ohio and Indiana afford 
an instance of political perfidy in order to improve 
the chances of success. 

The question presented in these papers is of a very 
different and much more important character. It is 
not whether the party views of the people shall be 
correctly represented by the ballot, but whether they 
shall have any representation whatever in the manage- 
ment of local or State concerns. At present, they 
have no share in naming local officers, but by virtue 



IN THE UNITED STATES. I43 

of the fact that they ratify the action of political 
conventions, in every State and community where 
majorities are large, the power, not only of nominating 
but electing is in the hands of those bodies.* Even in 
the nation, except as to the few questions of universal 
solicitude, they possess no power and hold no officials 
responsible ; but through the selective machinery of 
parties, the executive with its vast array of stipend- 
iaries, and Congress with its doors crowded with lob- 
byists, act with regard to every selfish interest at war 
with honorable ambition, entirely according to their 
own discretion, uninfluenced by any power to com- 
mand or punish by the people. 

It is, therefore, a subject of the most solicitous in- 
quiry whether this power can be transferred to the 
people. Every device to that end has hitherto failed ; 
yet, so long as politicians can walk into the possession 
of the governments of every lesser community than 
the nation, without even promulgating their principles, 
and can seize even the machinery of the nation itself, 
with the consent, not of the people, but of the fifty or 
five hundred irresponsible individuals in a political 
convention, it is a question of supreme importance. 

At the risk of some repetition, let us endeavor to 
present a brief yet comprehensive summary of the 
conclusions which we have previously advanced, that 
the circumstances surrounding the exercise of the 



144 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

franchise may be understood, and the proper remedy 
applied. 

The movement of the public mind is extremely 
slow. No reform is worked out in a day. The ma- 
chinery which scatters public information is insuf- 
cient to reach and arouse a mass populating an 
extensive nation. The vast number of subjects de- 
manding the attention of the individual, the com- 
munity or the State cannot be displaced to make 
room for new and unfamiliar devices without years 
of labor devoted to the education of the public mind. 
A full century passed away before the union was 
welded together by the extermination of an evil which 
ever threatened its perpetuity. We cannot conceive of 
a million voters, all exercising the franchise, governed 
by the same reasons and directing their attention to 
the same ends. Under such circumstances, parties or 
divisions would not exist. Men, however, look upon 
the world through different spectacles, opinions vary, 
and public sentiment, unable to find expression by the 
concurrence of the voice of a majority, upon every 
subject to which the attention of that number may 
be attracted, is content to seek it upon a few issues of 
universal interest by combining into two opposite or 
antagonistic forces. 

The points of difference between two individuals 
will be increased when others are added to the num- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 145 

ber ; and if thousands or millions are included, the wills 
of all must bow to the demands of the larger or ma- 
jority party. The requirement which compels a 
majority to coincide, forces all to concentrate their 
. attention upon the few objects of special desire in the 
eyes of the larger elements, or in which each in- 
dividual may have a common interest. Every person 
composing a nation feels such an interest only in 
those questions involving the stability of govern- 
ment, of currency, and of public liberty, and it is 
quite natural that he should devote his attention to 
those subjects of dispute in which his welfare, however 
remotely, may be involved. 

It is quite impossible that the subjects which may 
divide the sentiments of citizens of one common- 
wealth, should rouse an interest beyond its borders. 
The circumstances, motives and desires of the citizens 
of one locality are peculiar to themselves, and must 
act within their confined sphere. The operation of 
national administration or legislation is universal in 
respect to some subjects, and as to others, involves 
the well-being of citizens in more than .a single State. 

An effective expression can be ensured only through 
a combination into two nearly equal forces, both seek- 
ing to enroll under their banners that majority to 
which will be confided the authority of government. 
Only by connecting himself with one of these forces 



I46 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

can the citizen assure himself of a voice in public af- 
fairs. If he casts himself with a third organization, 
he withholds from the one of the two leading forces 
with which he is most in sympathy a vote which may 
assist it to triumph, or gives an ineffective ballot upon 
some subject not immediately involved in the real 
contest. 

We have stated that these forces in the nation 
must be nearly equal, and will attempt to illustrate 
this view by an example. Let us assume that the 
voters composing the United States were so identified 
with each of the political organizations battling for 
the mastery that they always voted to support their 
respective parties. The statistics of each election 
would exhibit the same substantial results. Elections 
would then possess no significance. A triumph of the 
smaller organization, however slight the margin, would 
be impossible. The independent force, influenced by 
an intelligent comprehension of public issues, or im- 
pelled by prejudices trenched upon by the action of 
government, would not exist in the canvass ; and ap- 
peals to these elements, no longer made, the frame- 
work of party organization would disappear and even 
the franchise would become a useless privilege. To 
this independent element is due all that makes elec- 
tions significant, and the constant effort of parties is 
devoted to control it. The results of each election in 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 147 

dicate how small this element is, and how powerful 
are those organized factions which constantly assert 
their fidelity to the colors of their party. When this 
third and important factor is missing in national elec- 
tions, they, like those for State authority, will be mean- 
ingless. 

With the two immense political forces seeking to 
protect those interests involved in the movements of 
the national government, outnumbering ten to one the 
factor which bestows its favor in accordance with 
reason, or prejudices sufficiently strong to sunder their 
party attachments, no party, in a State election can 
enlist a sufficient number who will be influenced 
solely by their views upon State concerns, in a contest 
for the control of the commonwealth. The habits of 
thought of the masses are too deep-seated to permit 
them to be concentrated upon subjects of one char- 
acter at one election, and upon those of a vastly 
different nature at another, when the candidates pre- 
sented represent powerful elements with views seek- 
ing expression on subjects of national administration 
and congressional legislation. To organize for a 
national canvass upon one class of issues and disor- 
ganize and divide into their original elements when- 
ever a State or local election occurs, even before the 
prejudices excited in the former contest had disap- 
peared, is too much to expect from human nature, un- 



I48 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

assisted by a proper method to assure it an expression 
on appropriate subjects of public concern. Although 
speaking only in gains or losses, and not by the actual 
voice of the majority, the mass of voters will exert 
their strength with reference to the action of the 
national authorities, and contentedly accept the lead- 
ership of those whose names are identified only with 
national policy. The introduction of a new candidate, 
representing appropriate subjects, is an experiment 
certain of failure, while it may divide and defeat the 
efforts of the mass who seek to make the local result 
significant of the popular wish on questions of national 
concern. The minority, unable to control the State, 
forms only as a component part of the national organi- 
zation, and seeks to present a full phalanx to afford 
its friends in the nation a word of encouragement or 
a theme of congratulation. 

Though, perhaps, out of its logical order, let us 
seek in this place to disclose what would appear to 
afford a remedy for this state of affairs and ensure to 
the people of a State a method of elections which 
would soon result in the formation of parties based 
upon State issues and also the bestowal of public at- 
tention upon questions of domestic concern. 

A step in this direction is to afford every motive 
for increasing the independent element within the. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 149 

limits of a State, and ensure to this independent sense 
the fullest expression. Under the system presented in 
these pages,* the triumph of the leading party in a 
State is ensured beyond the possibility of doubt, 
though it may present more than one candidate for 
the favor of its supporters. Need we ask, under such 
a system, whether the independent force, not mindful 
of party obligations, would be content to support a 
candidate of a minority party, when a choice was af- 
forded them between two or more persons presented 
by the majority organization. Under a system per- 
mitting of such an alternative, the weaker party would 
constantly lose its strength, and no longer able to 
held its own, the election, in its relation to national 
affairs, would no longer be significant. A single year 
might mark its departure from a senseless contest; 
and the strength of the leading party would be the 
signal for its own overthrow. The characteristic now 
exhibited in the nation, in which equally balanced 
forces dispute for mastery, would also appear in the 
State, and the contest, no longer marked by national 
distinctions, would be fought upon issues that obscured 
the national identity of the voter. The minority, 
however impregnated with partisan prejudice, would 
find at the first election a stronger motive to assist in 
the triumph of a candidate who could succeed, than 
* See page 151. 



150 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

to cast its ballots for one who represented no longer 
the strength of his political friends, but their weak- 
ness. 

A perfect system of election consists in the per- 
formance of two distinct acts, involving considerations 
utterly unlike. One act of the voter is that in which 
he proclaims his fellowship in belief, principle and 
perhaps interest, with the millions who desire the gov- 
ernment to be conducted in accord with their views. 
In this consists his political character. This power 
is incomplete if he is not permitted to do that other 
act, whose improper performance may negative his 
wish ; for the declaration of public policy and political 
principles accomplish nothing of themselves. Their 
assertion is rendered effective only through the em- 
ployment of honest and competent hands to put them 
nto practical operation. Dishonest or perfidious 
agents may prove recreant to their trust ; and that 
election which asks the voter to support his principles 
by casting a ballot for an incompetent or unworthy 
official, requires him at once to vote for a shadow, 
which disappears the moment the act is done. A 
selection is quite as essential to a complete exercise 
of the franchise as an election ; and those require- 
ments which render the latter the proper, peaceable, 
fair and exact expression of the popular will are quite 
as indispensible to the exercise of the former function. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 151 

Nor is any election perfect in its character at 
which the voice of the majority may be negatived by 
the action of a few. The introduction of a third can- ' 
didate under our present system frequently defeats 
the will of the real majority, as to principles in a vain 
and feeble endeavor to assert opinions upon issues not 
in question ; and thus prevents the election of a re- 
presentative of the real sentiment of the locality. If 
an additional election, wherein each class of sentiment 
could assert itself, was afforded, third organizations 
would content themselves to speak, under the favor- 
able circumstances it presented, and the second elec- 
tion would be truly representative if confined to the 
two persons chosen by the largest numbers. The 
tendency towards Conservatism, resulting from the 
adoption of the system proposed will appear in that 
under it no insignificant organization, by holding the 
balance of power, can force the adoption of its crude 
ideas upon either of the leading parties. It must be 
strong enough to enlist the support of a large portion 
of the people, or else it will be excluded from the 
second contest. 

A system, in accord with these views, is presented 

below. It vests the people, guided in some degree by 

a body possessing all the selective characteristics of 

the electoral college, with the power of selection. 

I. Congress shall provide for holding two conven- 



152 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

tions for the presentation or naming of candidates for 
president and vice-president, which conventions shall 
be styled respectively, the " First Presidential Con- 
vention " and " Second Presidential Convention." 
The Legislature of each State shall appoint to each 
of such conventions a number of delegates equal to 
the whole number of senators and representatives to 
which the State may be entitled in Congress. In ap- 
pointing such delegates, each member thereof shall 
vote viva voce for a number of persons equal to the 
number to be appointed to only one of such conven- 
tions ; and, upon the first call of names, the delegates, 
to the number to which the State shall be entitled in 
one convention, receiving the largest numbers of votes, 
shall be chosen to such convention, and the persons, 
equal in number, receiving the next largest number 
of votes shall be chosen to the opposite convention. 
The Legislature shall determine the convention to 
which the respective lists of delegates are appointed. 

II. The delegates so appointed to the First Conven- 
tion shall meet at the time and place prescribed by 
Congress, and shall proceed to name candidates for 
president. Each delegate shall publicly announce 
his choice ; and any number of delegates may select 
a candidate for president and vice-president, provid- 
ing all composing such number shall concur in the 
selection of the same persons for each of said offices. 
The convention may by a vote of the majority of its 
members limit itself to the presentation of five can- 
didates for each of said offices. The provisions of this 
amendment relating to the First Presidential Conven- 
tion shall apply to the nominations made by the 
Second Presidential Convention. 

III. The president and vice-president shall be 
elected by the direct vote of the people. The person 
receiving the largest number of votes in the United 
States for president, shall be president, if such num- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 53 

ber shall exceed the combined vote given for persons 
named by the opposing convention. If no person 
have such number of votes, then a canvass shall be 
made only of returns of votes cast for candidates pre- 
sented by the First Convention, and the person re- 
ceiving the highest number of such vote, shall be 
declared nominated for president. A canvass of re 
turns of votes for candidates presented by the Seco nd 
Convention shall be made in like manner, and the 
person receiving the highest number of votes, shall 
also be declared nominated for president. A second 
election between the persons so nominated, shall be 
held, in the same manner as provided for the first 
election, and the person receiving the highest number 
of votes for president shall be president. 

IV. The foregoing provisions shall apply to the 
election of vice-president. 

V. No senator or representative, or person hold- 
ing an office of trust or profit under the United 
States, shall be appointed a delegate to a presidential 
convention. 

An additional provision to the effect that if a 
president is chosen at the first election, and no vice- 
president, the vice-president having the largest vote 
shall also be declared elected, it might be advisable to 
include. 

The conventions proposed possess all the character- 
istics of the electoral college. The Legislatures of the 
States elect their members; and the functions per- 
formed by the convention are to ascertain by discus- 
sion the capacities of the persons whose names may 
be presented for the high offices of president and 



154 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

vice-president. The persons best qualified are to be 
recommended to the masses of their respective party- 
organizations, not elected as now in theory by the 
electors. In the Legislatures, the Democratic dele- 
gates would doubtless be sent to the Democratic 
Convention, and those of the opposing party to the 
body representing their political views. 

The method of selecting delegates is an application 
of the principle of minority representation. If the 
Legislature of New York was composed of ioo Re- 
publicans and 60 Democrats, the first thirty-five dele- 
gates would receive 100 votes each, and the second 
thirty-five 60 votes each, assuming, as is most likely, 
each party would select and vote for its own dele 
gates. By uniting together, the certainty of electing 
delegates would be ensured to a party minority equal 
to one-third of the whole number of members of the 
Legislature. Where the minority was less than one- 
third it would at least possess sufficient strength to 
hold a balance of power and ensure selections of per- 
sons who would represent, in a measure, its senti- 
ments. It is within the range of possibility that 
Republicans might be sent to Democratic Conven- 
tions from States where the latter were largely in the 
minority; but their influence would be ineffective 
when confronted with the Democratic representation 
from the remainder of the States. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 155 

The leading advantages of the proposed system 
may be summarized as follows : — 

I. It ensures the holding of a political convention 
representing each political organization, without a 
designation of the titles of the party in the amend- 
ment. Each convention would meet under circum- 
stances " favorable to deliberation, and its members 
would be selected by an organized and responsible 
legal body, representing the highest intelligence of 
the State. The individual responsibility of each mem- 
ber of the Legislature is secured by compelling a 
record of the vote which he casts. 

II. The selection of all candidates is practically 
committed to the people. Political intrigue would 
avail little, even if a majority of a convention were 
engaged in it, when a combination of the more re- 
spectable elements of the body may recommend other 
candidates. The people would not hesitate to follow 
under the banners of those leaders within and outside 
of the convention, whose character was above suspi- 
cion. 

III. In the convention of each party would be 
found represented the various shades of sentiment 
which distinguish the members of both political or- 
ganizations. In France these are distinguished by 
the portions of the legislative chamber they respective- 
ly occupy, as the Right, Right Centre, Left, Extreme 



156 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

Left, or as Moderates, Radicals, Conservatives, Or- 
leanists, Legitimists, etc. While these divisions would 
be represented, it is not improbable that each conven- 
tion would make more than two or three nominations, 
or possibly only one. Such an one, however, must be 
acceptable to its honorable members, or they would 
feel justified in making an appeal to the masses of 
their party. 

IV. Partisanship is eliminated from the contest by 
compelling the counting of the popular vote as if each 
party had voted at an election held at a different time. 
No citizen would endanger the success of his partisan 
principles by voting independently ; and, in so voting, 
the chief considerations controlling his choice would 
have reference to the merits of the candidates. By 
voting for one of those proposed by his party conven- 
tion, he would do all that he could do under the pres- 
ent system to defeat the opposing organization, for 
the candidate receiving the largest support of the 
opposite party requires a popular vote equal to the 
votes received by all candidates named by the party 
of the citizen. 

V. The proportionate representation of States is 
secured in the conventions. There, it has its chief 
value. The final vote at elections seldom represents 
State interests, but the interests common to the whole 
union embodied in political parties. There is no rea- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 157 

son for the existence of a system, which gives 10,000 
Democrats in New York, representing their popular 
majority, an equal influence with 60,000 Republicans 
in Iowa, 40,000 in Massachusetts, and 25,000 in Mich- 
igan — a total of 125,000. At any time, dissatisfaction 
is likely to be created by the fact that a candidate is 
elected who represents less than a majority of the 
popular vote. 

VI. The requirement that a candidate having a 
popular vote equal to the popular vote cast for all the 
candidates named by the opposing convention, is in- 
tended to prevent one party from taking advantage of 
a division in the other, by nominating but one candi- 
date. The whole aim of the system is to give the con- 
ventions and citizens the fullest liberty in discussing 
the individual merits and principles of candidates, 
without incurring any risk of a defeat of their party. 

The selection of delegates by legislators, whose 
action is open to the criticism of the people, is most 
likely to ensure the highest class of ability in the con- 
ventions. The selection by these delegates of one or 
several candidates, not to exceed five, is certain to en- 
sure a representation of nearly every controlling im- 
pulse in the public mind, and to secure an accurate 
representation of the public will. 

The requirement that the vote shall be taken with- 
in political parties will have the effect of placing 



158 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

every candidate before the people upon his own mer- 
its, or the merits of the particular policy he repre- 
sents. If the convention presents a platform em- 
bodying the views of the organization for which it 
acts, no question will come before the masses except 
that relating to the honesty and competency of the 
respective candidates. It is not improbable that the 
delegates presenting candidates will prefer to asso- 
ciate no policy with their names which might endan- 
ger their chance of success at the second election, 
except that policy which is represented in their in- 
dividual characters. 

Unquestionably, the establishment of such a sys- 
tem would tend to destroy party prejudice and elimi- 
nate party lines. The independent voter could become 
an affirmative and not as a present, a negative force, 
in the government. At this time, he is only per- 
mitted the choice between two alternatives, each 
equally repulsive. Under such a system, in an open 
and honorable exhibition of strength, the independent 
and intelligent element, representing the commercial 
interests of the people, would doubtless control the 
country to the exclusion of all interested influences. 

We have not proposed in these papers to discuss 
questions relating to the capacity of the people to 
select their public servants. It is sufficient to know 
that in the Republic they are the government, and 






IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 59 

that their will is always sought to be represented. 
The mere partisan sense of the people constitutes but 
a small share of their impulses ; and their capacity to 
deal with the qualities of candidates is certainly equal 
to their competency to discuss the philosophical prin- 
ciples which underlie and control the movements of 
government. Honesty and ability are qualities which 
receive a universal recognition among men ; and pub- 
lic men possessing them can be pointed out with un- 
mistakable precision by the humblest of individuals. 
All are at a loss why more men of this character are 
not called into the public service, seldom reflecting 
that the means necessary to be used are repulsive to 
the very qualities sought. 

POPULAR REPRESENTATION. 

In the Federal . Convention, much distrust of the 
people was expressed. There were no lack of com- 
pliments to public virtue, but misgivings had their 
foundation in the supposed influence of demagogues. 
Madison, who perhaps better than any other, em- 
bodied in his opinions the principles of the Constitu- 
tion as it was finally established, Mr. Wilson, of 
Pennsylvania, afterwards associate judge of the Su- 
preme Court, and Governor Morris, of New Jersey, 
all strongly urged the advisability of- a direct election 
by the people. For one Mr. Madison expressed him- 



160 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

self willing to make the sacrifice of the interests of 
the South to secure this end, believing that the bene- 
fits to the whole people would amply compensate for 
the loss in influence by that section whose population 
was largely composed of persons not invested with 
citizenship. Some thought that orders of citizens be- 
cause of their strength would control the election, 
especially where a plurality only was required to elect ; 
and in illustrating that point, the Cincinnati, the order 
of revolutionary soldiers, was specially mentioned. 

Throughout the records of the convention are 
spread the thoughts of philosophers and statesmen. 
In a knowledge of constitutional and political princi- 
ples whose accuracy had been demonstrated in the 
experience of nations, its members excelled, perhaps, 
any other body whose deliberations have marked a 
historical epoch. The common law of England, de- 
scribing with precision the limits of private liberty, 
and the constitutional law of that nation picturing the 
sphere of public authority, were imbedded in the new- 
formed Constitution. The checks upon revolutions, 
and the principles of civil and political liberty alike 
received due attention. All that experience had 
disclosed was fully weighed, and the exact limitations 
of power, the exact balance of authority, and the in- 
dependence of each branch, were ensured to the 
agencies invested with the reins of government. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. l6l 

No chief magistrate acting by popular consent 
had ever existed before. Experience was there- 
fore silent ; and the members of the convention, in 
their caution, feared to invest the people with any 
authority beyond the selection of their legislative 
servants. The student of the present day, with the 
history of the Republic before him, possesses the 
means of judgment which were not accessible to its 
founders ; and his investigations will not fail to re- 
veal the errors, with reference to the portions of the 
structure of government which could not be based 
upon past experience. The utterances in the discus- 
sion upon the methods of electing president, disclose 
several erroneous impressions which prevailed in the 
Conventions, to which experience has since given a 
most satisfactory answer. 

i. The fear that a single order of citizens would 
control the election of president by enlisting a plu- 
rality of voters in behalf of its interests, has proven 
groundless. In every locality where a plurality only 
is required to elect, the votes of citizens are divided 
substantially, as in those communities where a major- 
ity is essential, between two parties ; in accordance 
with that tendency in the public- mind to compromise 
their differences in order to render success more cer- 
tain. Outside of the two leading parties, minorities 



l62 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

are always feeble, and most frequently so insignificant 
as not to hold a balance of power. 

2. The fear that large States would control the 
smaller ones has been discovered to be equally ground- 
less. The operation of the government and the ef- 
fects of popular suffrage has at no time exhibited an in- 
clination on the part of large States to gain an advan- 
tage over their weaker neighbors. Aside from the 
single instance of a sectional party, the people within 
each of the States have found common interests felt 
by every citizen in the Union upon which to unite. 
Strange, too, with the instances of party combinations, 
frequently referred to during its deliberations, in all 
the States in the Union, dividing nearly equally their 
citizenship, its members failed to discern that the 
formation of the Union would transfer the field of 
action to the nation ; and that the same array of equal 
forces would battle for the possession of the authority 
of the central government. 

3. The gravest error of all, was that which erected 
a system of popular elections by which representation 
was secured, without responsibility. No aim was 
more persistently sought than that of securing the 
responsibility of legislature to the people. By elect- 
ing the lower house frequently, and by limiting the 
term of the executive to four years, it was thought the 
responsibility of both branches was secured. The ex- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 163 

pectation of popular divisions into small factions, and 
the belief that States would insist upon the represen- 
tation, each of its own peculiar and separate interests, 
alike contributed to the impression that citizens would 
vote directly for their individual preference, uncon- 
trolled by any intermediate body. The experience of 
the past has demonstrated, most unmistakably, that 
to secure the representation of their party feelings, 
they will sacrifice their opinions as to the individual 
honesty and the individual capacity of their candi- 
dates ; and consent to sustain the persons presented 
by any agency which usurps the name and pretends 
to represent their party. Only by so doing can they 
give effect to their ballots. The responsibility which 
the founders of the government sought to ensure to 
the people, was thus transferred to bodies which 
usurped the authority of making the selection of every 
official, and those bodies, unlawful in themselves by 
rules of action established by their own members, 
have divested themselves of the slightest responsibil- 
ity to the classes they claim to represent. 

Underlying all of these erroneous impressions is a 
doubt of the competency of the people to make proper 
selections for the high offices of the Republic, and the 
college of electors, chosen by the Legislatures of each 
State, was intended to establish a body of men of high 
ability to whom the selection of chief magistrate was 



164 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

to be confided. A consideration of the phenomena of 
nature and the action of human beings will disclose 
how mistaken is this distrust. The Creative Being 
who has invested man with intellectual capacity, has 
clothed intelligence with dominion over the mind 
and passion of ignorance. The Unseen Intelligence, 
whose handiwork is exhibited in all the beauties of 
nature, receives the homage of every intellectual 
being. The priest, not more from his authority than 
the respect of his less favored congregation, receives 
the homage of the adherents of his church. The 
statesman receives the applause of a large constitu- 
ency, whose capacity, though not sufficient to compre- 
hend the intricate details of his policies, is yet ample 
to admire his wisdom and discernment. The humble 
artisan submits willingly to the benign control of a 
government whose workings he may not understand, 
but whose movements he well knows are controlled 
by an intelligence greater than his own. It is this 
rule, wide as the breadth of nature, which com- 
pels the homage of physical power in the presence 
of intellectual superiority, and which renders endur- 
able the dominion of kings, surrounded by capable 
courtiers. 

The growth of intelligence is almost in the precise 
ratio of the advance of intellectual supremacy over 
physical power, and the advantages of universal edu- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 65 

cation in every country, are appreciated by all. Yet, 
the power of virtue, integrity and capacity, are not 
alone upheld by men vested with high intellectual 
qualities, but they ensure as well the protection of 
ignorance from injustice, and earn its constant venera- 
tion. The beneficial influence of that citizen, with in- 
telligence only sufficient to appreciate his apparent 
interests, by the action of his independent judgment, 
can hardly be as great as that of his humble neighbor, 
who, feeling his own ignorance, is led to substitute the 
will of some superior, in whose ability and integrity 
he possesses full confidence, in the place of his own. 
Virtue, charity, honor are not alone the concomitants 
of intelligence, but their home is found as well in the 
hearts of the humblest of the people, and their pres- 
ence in the minds of the poor is j ust as available when 
they lead that class to trust the integrity and virtue of 
competent superiors. Education leads to abetter ap- 
preciation of the path of duty, and extends the grasp 
of conscience, only when separated from the power of 
selfishness. 

The diversity of employment, the spread of intel- 
gence by means of a thousand presses, the intimate 
and neighborly relations called into being by the vast 
network of railroad communication, the immense ex- 
tension of trade, all contribute to establish upon firm 
foundations the civilization of our people, and furnish 



1 66 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

the strongest chords of mutual interest. The citizen 
of New York participates in the profits of the pro- 
ducer of the West and the South ; and the intricate 
problems of commercial economy train his mind in 
every art of investigation. 

The universality of the rule by which the inferior 
places his power at the disposal of a superior in whom 
he has learned to put his trust, in itself, explains the 
concentration of public opinion in that direction which 
gives it effective expression ; and this method by 
which the masses avail themselves of the competency 
of their leaders in judging of and promulgating polit- 
ical principles, would be quite as efficient in judging 
of the individual candidates presented for their ap- 
proval. The circumstances, which have been de- 
scribed, that compel the establishment of bodies pos- 
sessing the functions of selecting the officials of the 
government, limit the expression of the public will to 
such agents as possess the qualities of mind and en- 
ergy needed to secure an admission within them, and 
the expression is not that of the whole body politic, 
but of a simulated voice, sounded by selfish influences 
attracted to the meetings. With the masses of peo- 
ple refusing to attend primaries, with interested in- 
fluences controlling them, with small conventions 
open to every artifice of bribery, it cannot be said 
that the people are represented. The management 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 67 

of this machinery demands peculiar qualities, at war 
with those which characterize the honest and com- 
petent official. It moves so far in opposition to the 
actual interests of the public as it may with safety. 
The moral sentiment of the people alone repels it, and 
the effective expression becomes weaker as the in- 
crease of population enlarges the number of interests, 
to be compromised in order to ensure an effective op- 
position. The Sumners, the Wells, the O' Conors, 
the Evarts, the Adams control public sentiment 
and the perceptions of conscience which they exhibit, 
find an echo in the public mind. They fill no offices ; 
the machinery of party never seeks them except when 
impending defeat compels its abandonment by influ- 
ences more selfish ; yet in retirement, by the moral 
sentiment of which they are types, the machinery of 
parties is held in check. 

LOCAL ELECTIONS. 

The system proposed in these pages for the nom- 
ination of president could be applied to smaller local- 
ities, by a provision of law requiring any body of cit- 
izens making a nomination in a city to send the tick- 
ets nominated to the common council ; such tickets, 
not exceeding ten in number, to be classified by par- 
ties, within the doors of such council. By directing the 
council to compel a separate count of the ballots cast 



1 68 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

for the candidates of each party, the sense of the cit- 
izens composing such party could be obtained and 
declared at the primary or nominating election. In 
counties, the functions performed by the council 
might be performed by the board of supervisors. In 
small towns, the people practically nominate by a 
meeting of its residents, and illegal voting to a con- 
siderable extent is prevented by their mutual ac- 
quaintance. 

In making State nominations, by the election of 
delegates by the boards of supervisors, to State Con- 
ventions, each class of delegates being designated by 
the boards by the application of the minority princi- 
ple ; and an election by the people composing the re- 
spective parties, precisely as in the plan for the elec- 
tion of president which we have given, the sense of 
each political organization could be obtained in ad- 
vance of the final election. 

Some of the evils of which we have treated, could 
be reformed in a measure, without a change of law ; 
but no authority is so impressive and positive as that 
which speaks in its name. Four requirements, if 
followed, would go very far in remedying the defects 
of the primary system : 

I. The employment of the list of registered voters, 
in use at elections in cities. 

II. The investment of absolute authority in the 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 69 

inspectors to preserve order and to decide upon 
the qualifications of voters by the consent of the 
caucus. 

III. Members of all parties should participate in 
the same election. 

IV. The votes of the members of one party should 
be counted separately from others. 

The police regulations of the law, which would 
cover any meeting of citizens, if enforced by any 
authority such as inspectors, recognized by the party, 
are ample for the preservation of order. 

The contemplation of the enormous expenses of 
government, local and national, as compared to the 
trivial cost of elections, would almost persuade one 
that the expense of nominating officials by popular 
suffrage could not become an element of legitimate 
controversy. The cost of such an election through- 
out the United States would hardly exceed the pres- 
ent expense attaching to the several meetings for the 
registry of voters in the cities of the country. 

The expense of running or manipulating party ma- 
chinery comes directly from the people, chiefly through 
the high salaries established for public officers and 
the subsidies voted to corporations. Interest, com- 
pounded five times, would not equal the difference be- 
tween the amounts paid by those who contribute to 
the expenses of political organizations and the amount 



170 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

received by those individuals through the mechanism 
they pay for and control. 

The laws with reference to bribery cannot be 
contemplated without a conviction of their absurdity. 
In a city like New York, with a majority in a local 
election for one party more than all the votes of its 
opponents, the mischievous effects of bribery will 
chiefly be felt at the primaries, and not at elections. 

This bane of the elective franchise will not be em- 
ployed where a public sentiment is strongly opposed 
to it or where its use does not promise success. With 
the vast majority of citizens uninfluenced, in making 
a nomination within their party organizations, the 
mere suspicion of the use of such means would be 
sufficient to convince that the candidate employing 
them was unfit for official station. 

THE CONFORMITY OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM WITH 
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

The natural tendency of the elements composing 
the Conservative or Democratic party is to favor the 
harmonious principles of free trade, hard money, 
strict construction, local self-government, and indi- 
vidual liberty. The presence of human slavery within 
the borders of the Union, for a long period, rendered 
the question of State or local self-government the one 
of highest importance. The party representing this 
material interest of a large portion of the members of 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 171 

the organization, persistently contended for State's 
rights ; and resisted the claim of the Federal govern- 
ment to interfere with the domestic institutions of com- 
monwealths. Since the emancipation of slaves, the 
party has occupied the less objectionable position as 
the advocate of local self-government, and the friends 
of that system of policies tending to the decentralization 
of power. The process of localizing power into the 
hands of the people was thought to afford a remedy for 
the evils of the civil service, and the most recent ex- 
pressions of the Democratic Conventions would seem 
to point to the election of national officials, operating 
within a small territory, by the people within their 
jurisdiction. 

The adoption of the principle of free trade as a 
legislative rule of action, it is claimed, would prevent 
the establishment of monopolied interests, and would 
tend to the distribution of labor in its natural chan- 
nels, where it would not be disturbed by the inter- 
ference of the legislative authority, compelled by the 
necessities of the government, to make frequent 
changes in the tariff regulations. 

The strict construction of laws would tend to pre- 
vent the building up of special internal interests with 
the assistance of the government ; and would secure 
more efficiency in its action by limiting the scope and 
number of the duties of the official servants. 



1/2 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

The advocates of hard money, and the single 
standard of gold, seek the establishment of a measure 
of values which would be undisturbed by the inter- 
ference of the Legislature of the nation, which aims 
to adapt a national currency to the wants of the coun- 
try. The productions of the people would represent 
their real value in the currency of the world, if the 
entrance of coin was unimpeded by the presence of a 
cheaper currency. The interests of monopoly and 
speculation in an unsettled currency, and the power 
of the elements controlling its values, would be sub- 
stantially nullified, by the adoption of the currency 
possessing intrinsic worth, and forcing the special in- 
terests of our nation into competition with the inter- 
ests of the civilized world. The fear of legislative 
interference with the currency, the concentration of 
capital and labor into places wherein it was forced by 
tariff regulations, and the inefficiency, dishonesty and 
extravagance of public officials, constitute the chief 
causes contributing to the present depression in busi- 
ness. 

It is an accepted principle of government that small 
bodies are most open to the influence of bribery ; and 
to human nature, as exemplied by circumstances con- 
stantly recurring, the employment of undue influences 
is not peculiarly repulsive. Each of the principles to 
which allusion has been made seeks to establish in 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 73 

the frame work of law the provisions which curtail the 
influence of agencies which may be specially benefit- 
ted by the assistance of government. An appeal in 
behalf of these interests, made directly to the reason 
of the people, would be unobjectionable, and would 
result in securing them the representation to which 
they are entitled. An appeal to the few persons, 
composing a political convention, invested with almost 
absolute power over the choice of the people, is certain 
to secure for them, a representation far greater than 
their legitimate portion. The principles of Democ- 
racy afford an indirect method of curtailing their 
influence ; but the wide scope of adminstrative and 
legislative discretion, within the law, cannot be touched. 
In this domain, the fidelity, capacity and honesty of 
public servants is of supreme importance and obedi- 
ence to the requirements of the party sense of the 
conservative organization, in respect to the leading 
principles of legislation, will not suffice to protect the 
people from the influence of special agencies which 
ask for such benefits as do not tend to arouse a uni- 
versal indignation. The special principles of a party 
may suffice to narrow the scope of legislative authority, 
but the real principles, controlling the minds of the 
individual public servants, will alone carry out the gen- 
eral rules to an application to every interest which 
seeks their favor. 



1/4 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

It is evident, too, that with the primaries of the 
Conservative organization, so constructed as to permit 
the entrance of interests repugnant to its principles, 
with its conventions irresponsible and composed of 
numbers so small as to be controlled by undue or im- 
proper influences, the perfect representation of the 
masses of its adherents is not secured, and the real 
efficacy of its professed principles is apt to be de- 
stroyed by filling its camp with enemies, invested with 
the authority to give effect to its measures and poli- 
cies. A few of the monopolies engaged in iron, 
woollen, or cotton manufacture, open to competition 
from foreign goods, have interests important enough 
in congressional legislation to warrant the expenditure 
of millions of dollars in influencing the primaries and 
conventions of either political organization, by direct 
or indirect methods. One of the Democratic senators 
from Connecticut, placed in his seat, it is said, by the 
use of means of doubtful legitimacy, represents in 
his person, interests which are utterly at war with 
the demands of Democratic policy. It is difficult 
in the State of Pennsylvania to secure a ratification of 
the real principles of the party, owing to the power 
the protective interests of that State exercise upon its 
political conventions ; and it is a remarkable fact that 
the man representing more nearly the real Conserv- 
ative tendencies of the party than any other, is a 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 175 

senator from the smallest State in the Union — a State 
having no large special interests seeking for legislative 
favors. 

What condemnation must we visit upon a party 
that professes principles seeking the destruction of 
monopolied influences while the expression of its voice 
is had through agencies peculiarly adapted to the en- 
trance of the very powers which it claims to oppose ! 

As has been shown, local self-government loses its 
vital quality under a system which arrays on opposite 
sides unequal forces. The underlying theory of this 
policy is that officials nearest to the people will be 
most responsible to them. Responsibility, which re- 
sults from a power of control possessed by the people, 
cannot be increased when- officials are practically 
elected on party issues, the outgrowths of national 
action, by the dictation of the party caucus. 

The influence of the people may be employed more 
advantageously in the evenly balanced nation than in 
lesser localities whose partisan judgment is ever ex- 
pressed in the same direction. 

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

In the preceding pages we have tried to traverse 
a field of political inquiry hitherto almost unexplored. 
Observers of the tendencies of political thought in this 
country, must have discovered a growing distrust of 



iy6 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

Republican institutions now inculcated among a large 
class of people prompt to discover the extent, but slow 
to discover the nature of evils — a distrust which is the 
natural outgrowth of misgovernment and mal-admin- 
istration, both in the management of local and national 
concerns. Nothing is more natural than to attribute 
these ills to the form of our political structure, and to 
charge on the people a lack of capacity to perform the 
duties of self-government. 

It has been the aim of this work to show that this 
distrust is groundless, and that the evils complained 
of are not attributable to popular ignorance so much 
as to the methods by which the public voice is sought 
to be expressed. 

In the course of our inquiry we have called to rec- 
ollection the fact that the Union embodies the first 
attempt to establish a free government over a widely 
extended territory ; that representation, which was 
the principle whose application alone assured an equal 
voice to all, demanded that the delegated agents of 
the people should be selected in such a manner as to 
ensure the fullest responsibility to their constituen- 
cies. As the one and only active exercise of power 
ensured to the masses, is afforded through the ballot, 
responsibility — the corner-stone of representation — 
depends almost entirely upon the methods of election. 

The Union transformed thirteen independent 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 77 

sovereignties, each possessing all the attributes of 
separate nations, into one. Looking with human eyes, 
it is not unnatural that the founders of the govern- 
ment under-estimated the nature of the powers they 
were granting to the national authority, and failed to 
appreciate that new formations would supplant the 
parties and factions of the different States. In the 
election of members of the House of Representatives 
only, did the people, speaking in small districts, em- 
ploy their ballots in the choice of national officers ; 
and not until they rendered useless the electoral 
college for the purposes of its establishment, by grasp- 
ing the power of electing the chief magistrate, did 
two political parties arise as contestants for the 
patronage of the nation. 

Under the new conditions, the people have formed 
an allegiance to one or the other of these national 
organizations, an allegiance dependent upon the action 
of the central government operating only in its widest 
sphere, or as it affects the interest of every citizen 
within its boundaries. The slight changes of political 
sentiment, from year to year, disturB only the polit- 
ical balance in the nation at large, and the only vote 
that can be effective must be devoted to influence 
national policy. As the whole includes all its parts, 
these changes are insufficient to overturn parties in 
the respective States or alter their local policies ; and 



I78 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

if majorities within them could be readily transposed, 
it would change men whose known' opinions upon 
national subjects would have little to do with State 
concerns. The remedy proposed is ample to obviate 
a state of affairs like this. 

Again, in their national relations, the power of the 
people is equally important. A few national ques- 
tions, vital in their character, the citizen may reach 
through his ballot ; but he leaves unaffected by his 
influence a vast array of discretionary power however 
intelligently the franchise may be exercised. The 
duty incumbent upon him of choosing at one and the 
same time the set of principles he approves and the 
agent to whom he will confide their keeping, must be 
inadequately performed at one election, in which two 
distinct and equally important ends are sought to be 
attained. The questions of honesty and capacity, ' 
upon which depends the proper exercise of discretion- 
ary power, are forgotten in the heated contests in- 
volving the choice between political principles. 

It is, then, in this aspect that the machinery of 
selection, erected by political parties, becomes of the 
utmost importance, as it is the only means afforded 
to enable the people to speak as to the personal fit- 
ness of candidates. If the people are entitled to a 
voice therein, it would seem that they are entitled as 
well to the fullest protection in its exercise ; and all 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 79 

that is demanded herein, is that the paraphernalia of 
law which makes elections a fair representation of the 
public will should be thrown around the citizen in the 
caucus and convention ; and that those bodies should 
be stripped of the characteristics which render them 
the irresponsible agents of designing influences. The 
element whose interest it is to reward the statesmen 
and punish the demagogue, is the people, composing 
the whole body politic ; not the thousand agencies 
which now control political machinery by virtue of its 
irresponsible characteristics. 

A perusal of these pages, we believe, has convinced 
the thoughtful reader that this mechanism is utterly 
unsuited to accomplish its legitimate purpose ; and is 
the main obstacle to the success of every just execu- 
tive policy affecting the civil service where it pre- 
scribes a rule that strips the legislator of the assist- 
ance he relies upon for personal advancement from 
those dependent upon his influence. It will be found 
that the machinery is a species, of jugglery, peculiarly 
suited to establish the dominion of selfish elements, 
seeking the power of government ; and in every locality 
where majorities are so large as to make a nomination 
equivalent to an election, it renders the latter the 
most absurd of farces. 

With a majority expressive of the difference be- 
tween two political forces, embodying in themselves 



l80 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 

every shade of opinion, third parties are merely pro- 
tests against the machinery which permits their ad- 
herents no voice within those organizations represent- 
ing the issue of approval or disapproval — the yea or 
nay — of government policy. If the machinery af- 
forded a fair representation of the constituent ele- 
ments of either party, the strength of those now 
forced outside would be increased in proportion to 
the diminished number of those composing a single 
organization. Two parties are the natural outgrowths 
of every government controlled by the ballot, the 
natural vehicles through which the voice of millions 
is exerted and the formations of nature resulting from 
the efforts of the mass to speak effectively through 
the tongue of a majority. The machinery of political 
parties and the elective instrumentalities afforded by 
government, would assure the natural expression of 
the popular voice, if the former were as perfect as the 
latter. The duty of selecting political principles and 
the person who embodies them, is performed through 
these parties. With two sets of principles of ac- 
knowledged supremacy standing in hostile array, no 
duty remains for the citizen, as a member of his party, 
but that of choosing the agents, most honest and ca- 
pable, to carry them into effect. Any system erected, 
without regard to these facts, may increase the num- 
ber of parties ; but it will not affect the complex 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 15 1 

methods of each, nor can it enlarge the bounds of 
responsibility of officials or the capacities of the peo- 
ple. Nor will it avoid that mechanism through which 
those of common sentiments may gather to them- 
selves the greatest numbers or exert the greatest 
power. The sphere of popular influence and official 
responsibility may be enlarged by giving the masses 
control of the machinery of selection, and by no other 
method ; and this consummation maybe attained only 
by taking their sense within the political parties. 



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